Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer says 100-150 more dealerships needed to hit revenue goal

“We probably need to buy about $10 to $15 billion in revenue,” DeBoer said.

When Lithia said it bought a Stellantis store in December, the auto retailer noted that in 2022 it had acquired dealerships that were expected to add $3.5 billion in annual revenue. Lithia also sold several dealerships in 2022.

DeBoer said Lithia likely would need to have about 500 dealerships overall to hit its $50 billion revenue target. Lithia has 282 dealerships in the U.S. and 14 in Canada, according to its website.

To add $10 billion to $15 billion in annual revenue from acquisitions, “it’s 100, 150 locations domestically in the United States, or in some of the other parts of the world where we have some growth opportunities as well, depending on what pricing looks like,” DeBoer said. “As we start to reach some of the ceilings of what our manufacturers will partner with us on, domestically, we have to start putting our oars into different waters because we probably have three to seven years of growth with most manufacturers before we start to cap out.”