Central Florida auto group finds new frontier in China, from Orlando Sentinel.
China was a tantalizing frontier for Greenway Automotive owners Carl Atkinson and Frank Rodriguez.
The Orange County partners have five dealerships in the Asian country, one under construction and another about to be built. That makes them pioneers in a part of the world that has become the No. 1 market for auto sales.
Their privately owned company generated $1.6 billion in annual revenue in 2013, and they expect to post about $2 billion in 2014, Atkinson said.
Not bad for two native Floridians who had just one dealership a dozen years ago and now own 45. The newest is a Nissan business they bought last month in Jacksonville, where they met about 25 years ago.
“When I started out, I just wanted to feed my family,” said Rodriguez, 65. “I just wanted to make a living, but things got better and better.”