AutoCanada undertakes management shakeuGetty Images/iStockphoto
AutoCanada Inc. founder Pat Priestner is stepping down as executive chairman in May and plans to leave the company entirely next year in a series of succession moves at the largest publicly traded auto dealership company in Canada.
Mr. Priestner, who built the company from a chain of five stores into one that now owns 53 dealerships, will become non-executive chairman in May and continue to advise on and participate in acquisitions while he remains in that job.
"There comes a time when you have to let go a little bit if you want to properly plan for the future by attracting top top talent," he said on a conference call Friday on the company's fourth-quarter and full-year financial results. He has spent his entire working life in auto retailing and much of it building AutoCanada.
As part of the succession planning, former Chrysler Canada Inc. president Steven Landry has been appointed chief executive officer of the company.
"He's a car guy," said one dealer who is familiar with Mr. Landry and AutoCanada. "They couldn't have picked a better guy."
Mr. Landry's most recent position was chief development officer for ATCO Ltd. and Canadian Utilities Ltd. in Calgary. But he spent 27 years at Chrysler, where his most recent job was executive vice-president of North America at Chrysler LLC before the auto maker was purchased by Fiat SpA in 2009.
Steve Rose, chief operating officer, will retire in October, while Tom Orysiuk will continue as president.
Dealerships that sell Fiat Chrysler vehicles represent 16 of AutoCanada's 54 dealerships across the country.
The succession plan and management shakeup were announced as part of the release of AutoCanada's financial results early Friday.
The company's final profit fell by more than 50 per cent in 2015 to $22.8-million from $53-million a year earlier. Per-share profit slid to 92 cents from $2.30 in 2014.
Revenue rose 31 per cent to $2.9-billion from $2.2-billion.
The slump in the Alberta economy played a big role in the drop in profit.
"It was obviously a very challenging year for the company," Mr. Priestner said on the call. "Perhaps we could have moved a little bit more quickly to operating in a defensive mode," given the impact of falling oil prices on the economies of two key AutoCanada markets, Alberta and Saskatchewan.
"Almost half of our dealerships are located in Alberta and have been significantly impacted by a decline in consumer confidence, which directly impacted consumer willingness to buy a new vehicle," Mr. Orysiuk said in a statement.
All but two of the company's dealerships were profitable last year, he said, "though, in the case of our Western Canadian dealerships, some were at significantly reduced levels as compared to previous years."
The company had previously announced a cost-cutting plan, reductions in capital spending and the sale of Newmarket Nissan Infiniti. That dealership was one of the two that were not profitable last year.
Mr. Priestner said the long-term strategy for AutoCanada has not changed and that includes continuing to grow in Western Canada despite the current slump.
"We do agree that regional diversification is a sound strategy and we're going to continue down that path," he said. "However, we also believe and believe very strongly that the right time horizon for the company is always the long term and over the long term, the West has proven to be a very robust and profitable auto retail market."