Executive Profile with Jim Fitzpatrick, Powered by CBT News

Leading with Purpose: The Jane Vaden Thacher Story

• CBT News • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Jane Vaden Thacher didn't expect to follow in her father's footsteps. Her primary goal after high school was to escape Savannah and the family name plastered across vehicles throughout the city. But thirty years after returning to the business her father started in 1968, Jane has transformed Vaden Automotive Group into a powerhouse representing Chevrolet, Cadillac, Nissan, Infiniti, Hyundai, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram across 13 dealerships with 762 employees.

The journey wasn't easy. Jane began in a trailer beside the body shop, worked her way through F&I, and eventually convinced General Motors to award her a second Chevrolet point in Savannah—which she opened at age 34 while pregnant with twins and still managing other dealerships. "I just outworked them," she explains about overcoming initial resistance as a female leader in automotive retail.

What sets Vaden Automotive apart is a philosophy Jane calls "The Vaden Way"—a culture built on employee development, transparency, and community commitment. This approach has created remarkable loyalty, with many senior team members boasting over 20-year tenures. While approximately 35% of Vaden's workforce is female (many in leadership positions), Jane dismisses gender as a determining factor: "To me it absolutely makes no difference. It's always about what you can do."

Looking ahead, Jane remains pragmatic about industry challenges from EV adoption to digital retailing evolution. She's focused on growing Vaden from a half-billion to a billion-dollar enterprise while preparing her son Jack to eventually take on leadership responsibilities. But following family tradition—her grandfather died selling cars on the showroom floor—Jane has no plans to retire: "That's not what we do in my family." Experience the wisdom of this automotive pioneer who continues to prove that trust, transparency, and outworking the competition never go out of style.

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Announcement :

This is the Executive Profile, exclusively on CBT News. Today's episode has been sponsored by the Presidio Group.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Welcome into another edition of the Executive Profile on CBT News, where we sit down with the top minds driving the retail automotive industry forward. Today's show takes us to Savannah, Georgia, where we sat down with Jane Vaden Thacher, president and dealer operator of Vaden Thacher. President and dealer operator of Vaden Automotive Group. Jane leads one of the most respected dealership groups in the Southeast, representing major brands like Chevrolet, Cadillac, Nissan, Infiniti, Hyundai, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram. Jane was recently honored by Automotive News as one of the 100 leading women in the North American auto industry, a well-deserved recognition of her leadership, innovation and lasting impact on the auto industry.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Since stepping into the family business in the mid-90s, jane has carved out her own path, opening her first store at just 34 years old, while raising three young children and pursuing a culture she calls the Vaden Way, built on trust, honesty and a deep commitment to community. In this edition of the Executive Profile, jane shares her journey, lessons learned and what's next for both Vaden Automotive and the industry at large. I think you're really going to enjoy this edition of the Executive Profile. Check it out. Jane Baden-Thatcher, thank you so much for allowing us to come into your dealership here and spend some time with you. We're so looking forward to today's discussion.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Well, thank you for coming.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

We're happy to have you. Yeah, it's great. So let's start in the beginning. Tell us a little bit about your background. I know your dad was a dealer. You're the second generation dealer. Talk to us about your upbringing. Were you from Savannah?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We moved to Savannah when I was two years old and my dad opened the dealership. He was the second Chevrolet point at the time in Savannah a new store and he was, when he started, the only employee, and it was here where you're sitting today.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Wow, that's something.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

But the area was actually it was rural. It was a dairy farm when he started. Oh my gosh, so he quite literally started from nothing.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

And what year are we talking about? 1968. Wow, 1968. And here we are now in an incredible facility. I'm sure it's been built a couple of times now, right, it has.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yes, we've seen several iterations over the years and I started my automotive career at this location also. I was 13 years old and my father said okay, time to go to work.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

There you go, Washing cars or shuffling paper or whatever right.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I spent the first part of my career actually as the switchboard operator, so I learned very quickly that you have to have a thick skin in this business.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Oh, yeah, in this business and then went through all the paces you know all through high school summers and holidays and all of those things. That's fantastic. Was the car business something at the end of that period of time that you were working early on? Was that something that you aspired to be in?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Absolutely not no.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Did it show you that this is one business I don't want to be in?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Did it show you that this is one business I don't want to be in? Well, my number one goal when I graduated from high school was to move somewhere where no one had ever heard the word Vaden and my name was not on the back of every vehicle running around in Savannah.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

So I went off to college at Vanderbilt, got a very practical degree in English literature, quickly decided that everybody said, oh, are you going to teach school? No, I don't want to do that. So I got a master's in journalism and public relations and went to work for an agency in Atlanta for about five years and my father was an incredible salesman.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

He was a closer.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

He was a closer and when he had trouble closing me he started working on my husband so we moved to Savannah. It actually was, it was 30 years last June.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, wow, that we've been back, so that's when I started as an adult Right Gotcha, gotcha, and when you came back, were you at a specific dealership? Or talk to me about your career once you came back.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Well, when I came back, my father set us up, my husband and I, in true fashion, I guess, to see if we were really serious about wanting to be a part of the business. So we had a I think it was a single wide trailer. Okay, next to the body shop.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Way back in the back.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

And what was the purpose of the trailer? Were you selling vehicles out of it, or what?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

It was for the body shop.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That was for the body shop. It was for the body shop. Okay, gotcha.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

So that's where I started. Interesting, wow, I was back there sharing an office with my husband that was so small we couldn't open the door all the way you had to sort of turn sideways to get in the door you might be the first dealer I've interviewed that actually started in the family business in the body shop.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It's not a typical course, right? Yeah?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

well, I quickly decided that I wanted to be in. I thought I thought finance was probably a good place for me to learn.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

When you say finance, do you mean back office or F&I?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

No, I mean F&I, F&I okay. I had no interest in the back office whatsoever.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Still don't as a matter of fact, sure, sure.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And then I became the first F&I director the company ever had.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Fantastic.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And we only had three dealerships back then, so it was much, much smaller.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah, did you like F&I.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I loved F&I, except the paperwork part. Yes, yes.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It takes a mound to sell one car. I think it's more paperwork to sell a car than a home right? It definitely is, which is something that the industry is still struggling with. Absolutely it's crazy.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

So you go on from F&I to become sales manager. Is that kind of the natural evolution Normally? But I was F&I director and then I sort of fell into being the. I jumped from F&I director to general manager, okay okay store here okay the Chevy store and then began taking on. I added the Nissan store to my responsibilities, so I was running both of those.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Wow, okay, and at this time your husband is also in the company working. Yeah, is he still? He still in the body shop, by the way? Yes, he said I like it and I'm staying here.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I don't know that. He said that my father put my husband in charge of the complaint department.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Ah, gotcha. So every complaint went through him, went through him. Yeah, that took a load off your dad's back, right? He didn't have to deal with that any longer.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

You know that was one of his favorite parts of the business. Wow, the most fun he ever had, besides selling a car, which he did until he couldn't do the math anymore, was turning an upset customer around.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Wow, he was a genius at it that's something, that's something. At what point in time did you say all right, this is my new career, I'm in love with retail automotive and I want to grow the business.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Oh, from the minute I got here.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Really, yeah, okay, so your dad was right. Can I take you out of Atlanta at a PR firm because you grew up as a car girl?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I was passionate about it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yes, I'm still passionate about it, Sure. So how many as we sit here today, how many stores are in the Vaden that make up Vaden Automotive Group? 13.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

13 stores, Wow 13 stores, 762 employees as of yesterday. Wow, to be exact.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yes, that's. That's fantastic. And when your dad stepped down, obviously you took over the whole deal, right?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I sort of worked my way through. I had a goal of having my own dealership, without his involvement, at a younger age than he did.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, so I'm a little competitive. Yeah, did he appreciate that in you to say she's a lot like me, she wants her own store? He did.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, so the funny thing I had been approaching and trying to convince Chevrolet that Savannah could, because the my dad started as the second point, but pretty quickly after that the other dealer closed up shop.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Wow, Interesting. So we were the only point here and. I went to General Motors and convinced them finally that there was room for a second point.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, that would be you, that's your opportunity.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And they were gracious enough to. After a couple of years of working on it, they agreed. However, they gave us a very short time frame to accomplish that and it just so happened that at that time I had a one-year-old and I was pregnant with twins.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Oh my gosh, wow. You got your hands full and now you're going to open up a dealership.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

The twins were born at the end of March and June 1st I launched my own. Chevy store as well as brought on the Hummer franchise, but I was still running this dealership and the Nissan store. And then as well as brought on the Hummer franchise, but I was still running this dealership and the Nissan store.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So dad said you can do this, but you still got to run my stores, correct, which was great training. Looking back, that was great training for you for one day to take over the whole deal.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Absolutely yes, and starting having the opportunity at that age I was 34 at that point and having the opportunity to start from zero and to fully staff, because it was an ad point that I was awarded. So I was able to fully staff the dealership better than any MBA out there.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, right, right, no question. What's the strategy today? With you and Vaden Automotive Group and you know, I know that you just were awarded a Genesis point. Congratulations on that, that's fantastic Will we see more growth coming from Vaden in the future, with more stores?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We will. We set out, I guess four years ago now. We mapped out a five-year plan for growth, okay, when the goal at that point was to basically double the size of the company, go from a roughly half a billion dollar company to a billion dollar company in five years. Okay, part of that was in anticipation of our son coming back and coming into the business as well.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And we are, as I said, we're in year four of that. We added several rooftops three rooftops since we started the five-year plan. Okay, but we've also been super focused on expanding our capacity in our existing dealerships. So we've built additional service facilities in every dealership we have. Wow, that's fantastic.

Announcement :

And are continuing.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We're committed to probably one more round of acquisitions to get us over that hurdle right um but, but we're close we're.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

What do you look for when you're looking for another store? Are there any characteristics? Is it location? Does it have to be in this geographic area? It does, okay. And then are there brands that you say these are the brands that we'd love to have.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Not necessarily the location, so probably close to a decade ago now, I experimented with buying a. I bought a Toyota store that was about six hours away in the bar. And I found out real quick that I'm not wired that way.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

You want to be able to touch them each day, right, I want to be able to get there, and so, so did you really push that store? We sold that store. Yes, okay, do you get to visit the stores a lot? The different stores?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Absolutely, that's one of my favorite things to do.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah, that's great yeah.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I'm very close to a lot of my. We have a lot of long-term employees. Yeah, that's fantastic. And very very close to them, yeah, but as far as brands go, I mean, I would not have told you that we would be acquiring CDJR stores.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

That wasn't on my list. Right acquiring CDJR stores. That wasn't on my list, right? But last year we had a very unique opportunity. We were competing for an ad point for Hyundai. Okay, the meta plant that they have invested that's incredible Billions upon billions of dollars.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It's like its own city.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

It. It's actually under roof. It's over a million square feet Unbelievable.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, I've been lucky enough to be able to go and tour it and it's fantastic. What's your take on Stellantis right now? Obviously it's had some troubles here in the last couple of years and dealers are frustrated, to say the least. What's your perspective on the company and its future?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Well, I probably know enough to be dangerous because we're so new. But I will just tell you overall from my experience over the last 30 years, once you've lived through a bankruptcy situation like general motors went through you're. You're sort of um bulletproof in terms of doesn't scare you it can't yeah, I can't do what I need to do every day and and be worried about what the manufacturer yeah is going to do I'm going to do.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I'm going to do my job and we're going to figure out Car. People are very adaptable and we're the eternal optimists.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

No question about it, we have to be. That's right. The number of Stellantis dealers that I've spoken to have said yes, I have some concerns, but my stores are making money.

Announcement :

And ours are too, so that's at the end of the day, it's working right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, there's no question. And I think they've got to turn those great brands around. I mean, you've got Ram and you've got Jeep. These are just legendary brands, right, they'll figure it out.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I think they're doing some of the right things to get things turned around. Every manufacturer goes through cycles, I don't care who you are.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Right.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And we just sort of ride it out and we figure that's why we focus so much on fixed operations. Sure, because that's something that we can control, that's right. Focus on used cars, focus on finance. There are just so many Body shop.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I'm out of the body shop business. You're out of the body shop business. I'm out of the body shop business. I'm out of the body shop business. You're out of the body shop business, I'm out of the body shop business. So I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about your Nissan stores. Along those same lines of troubled franchises, what's your take on Nissan and its future?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I think Nissan's going to be okay. Yeah, I think they're making some painful adjustments right now. Right, and fortunately for us, we've weathered the storm, uh, very well in our stores. That's good. Um, we have three nissan dealerships, um, actually, the one in savannah is, um consistently ranked in the top 50 in the country wow, that's fantastic.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So, um, it's great and they're making money, and they're making money, yeah, that's great. And again, another great brand that, once they figure it out, it'll be smooth sailing.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

They will figure it Well.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I don't know about smooth there is no smooth sailing in the car business. No, there isn't.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Between you know COVID and tariffs and just all the things.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right. You mentioned you've got 762 employees working for the company. Now how do you, you guys, do a great job of not only finding great talent but also holding on to that talent. How do you do that? What's the ingredients there for dealers that are watching? I mean, it's a lot of employees. How do you keep them all happy and how do you build a culture that's going to bring them in and keep them in?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Some things we do. We call it the Vaden way. Okay, and it's really from the day my dad started. He was always very employee-centric and I was sort of raised in that environment and he believed if you took care of your, employees. They would take care of your customers Right Great philosophy it is, and I still believe that today, even though he had, at one point, probably the most employees he ever had was 150. And now we're 762. Sure, but I still believe in the same philosophies. We treat our people right.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We do what we say we're going to do. Yeah, we offer a lot of training, we offer paths toward growth and, as owners, we get our hands dirty.

Announcement :

Yeah.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We are very involved. We're in the dealerships regularly. That's great, we're that's great, and a lot of the people that are top members of our team I've basically raised them Wow, just as an example since we're sitting in Dan Baden Chevrolet, the general manager here, who's actually a minority partner with me, and I have several of those, but he started at the age of 18. Oh my gosh, wow, getting an accounting degree and working in a new car, get ready.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That is pretty cool. Wow, that's fantastic, what a story. That's got to be inspiring for your other 761 employees that hear that right.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Well, we have a lot of that on our senior team that hear that right. Well, we have a lot of that on our senior team. I think the tenure is for all of our directors, for variable, for fixed it's over 20 years oh my gosh and, and they're not old, you know they're a lot younger than I am.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, that's so and we're working now to build the next generation of leaders, some of whom are the children of not not just mine, but children of managers that we have, that's pretty cool, and so we're building for Jack, for his team. That's great. Unfortunately for him, jack is your son. Jack is my son. Unfortunately for him, I won't retire. You don't do that in my family Was your dad working.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Your dad passed right. He worked right up to the last day. I take it.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Well, he worked, he was 81 and had Alzheimer's. So at that point, honestly, I would tell him that he was at work and we would talk about it as if he was at work.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure sure.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And that was his happy place. That's great. That's great. His father sold cars for him and, quite literally, had a heart attack and passed away on the showroom floor.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Oh my God, so we don't retire, you don't retire. Oh my God it. We don't retire, you don't retire. Oh my god. It's in your, it's in your blood. And one thing that I read about you and your, your organization, is that I think, like 35 percent of your employees are female, many holding managerial positions.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Right, yes, we have. We have an unusual amount of that's fantastic female leaders.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Talk to me about from your perspective and I think you're uniquely Talk to me about from your perspective and I think you're uniquely qualified to answer this question. From your perspective, what does the retail automotive need to do in order to attract and keep and promote females into the industry?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

It's about opportunity more than anything. I mean we are we do have you know we're a lot more flexible in retail automotive than we used to in terms we used to be in terms of hours and the ability to juggle family and work. But a lot of the women that I have that are leaders in our organization have been with me over 20 years, for example, in unique roles, and it's really I've never looked at it as I mean. People ask me a lot of the time you know what's? You're in a man's world, or what's it like?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

It's to me it's. The only thing relevant about that to me is that when I go to dealer meetings, there are no lines for the ladies room, which is not the case most places you go. So to me it absolutely makes no difference. It's always about what you can do.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Have you ever felt, as a female in the automotive industry, that you were treated any differently? Because, you were female and it is such a male dominated business, sure yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, um.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

What happened? It actually happened with, um, when I started here as an adult, um, with a lot of the managers that my dad had had for years and years and years.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Now you're going to come marching in telling them what to do, right?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, they weren't super excited about that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Especially back then. Right, yeah, yeah, we've come a long way, but back then it was this young lady in the industry. Right, yeah, yeah but.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I just outworked them, right, right. You know, I moved cars, I did whatever. To me it's just, it's all about earning the respect, earning the right to be in the seat.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I don't care who you are, yeah that's what really females need to see, is they need to see that person at the top as a female and say, okay, well then, this makes sense right.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

And I love mentoring young women coming into the business.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's great. So let's talk a little bit about business. How is Vaden doing today? I mean, in light of all of the tariff talk and the economic situation and what have you? How's the business doing?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Really well, no complaints. You know, I don't know what the future will hold in terms of the effects of the tariffs and all of that may change. Sure, and we just stay focused on you. Get your blinders on. We do the task at hand. We focus on what we can control and do those things well, and usually you can weather. I mean, we've been through the recession and the all the lending issues and all the things and put your head down and you know if I have to go. I remember, you know, way back in the great recession or whatever.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I remember going around after hours and unscrewing some of the light bulbs so that bring down the cost.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Seriously.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, I mean, you just do what you got to do, that's right, and I hope we never get to that point again. There are cycles and I think it always comes back around. But if there is a blip, I want to be in a position to be able to grow and acquire additional franchises when the prices aren't way up here.

Announcement :

That's great.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

So that's our goal and that's what we work toward and that has served us very well.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic and it's a great outlook. There's no question as far as the president putting these tariffs on vehicles that are coming in and you sell some of them and obviously with some of even the domestic brands. You know many of the parts are, you know, brought in?

Announcement :

It's all about the part, not the brand. Yeah, exactly, it's not.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Are you supportive of his efforts? Do you think that it's a good thing in the long run, or where do you stand on that?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I'm going to wait and see. I don't really. You're not alone. I don't know.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, I don't know.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

All I know is, whatever it is, we have to work our way through it and figure it out, because we can't change it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's right. That's right. Let's talk a little bit about the EV situation. As you know, manufacturers went, you know, full guns a few years ago and said, hey, we're converting all of our cars to EVs and that's going to be the future. And obviously the Biden administration came in pretty hard on that as well. And we saw the carb states and what have you? Where does that stand today? Are people in Savannah coming in and asking for EVs and are you selling them? Or where does where does that stand?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

savannah's not um, a market that that really has the infrastructure to support, okay, um, a lot of ev adoption. But I will say it, it has grown. It's it's still a very niche market for us. Okay, the um, I think the the fear here of a lot of people are on the highway and a lot of people have trucks and it's a huge truck market. Yeah, yeah, and those, those folks aren't really thinking about EVs. Yeah, it seems to be much more prevalent in the large metropolitan areas. We do very well with Cadillac EVs. I think you'll see the market, at least in the short term, move a lot toward hybrid and we do see a good amount of business, okay, from that end. But fortunately for us, manufacturers like Chevrolet and Nissan didn't go all in. They, you know, committed to certainly offering having an EV offering, but continuing to support their ICE production and fortunately that turned out to be the wise move, at least at this point.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Sure, I've had this discussion with a number of dealers that said you know, we've got to get more salespeople into EVs.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

And then we can expect them to sell EVs, because if they don't experience the vehicle and obviously there's no more demos in the industry, you know per se, but uh, but if we, until we get, we win the hearts and minds of the salespeople at the front line you know you're not going to get people, because if somebody comes in and says I want to look at an EV and that particular salesperson is not comfortable or knows the vehicle inside or they don't believe in it, or they don't believe in it Right, then they kind of steer them towards a nice vehicle. Would you agree with that? Absolutely, yeah. More behind the wheel, in terms of your management style and your leadership style, talk to me a little bit about that. Obviously, you've got 762 employees to manage every day and work with. Is there a particular style that you kind of go towards?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Our style is very collaborative and very transparent. We run a very open book operation for our employees so that the managers all can run their department or their dealership as a business. They can see all the expenses. They know what they have to overcome. I've always said you might not like it but you'll know what it is.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, yeah. So talk to me about Jack's opportunity. When will we see him taking over the operation? As you said, he'll never actually totally take it over, because you're still here, but what's the game plan there for succession?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We are seeing him develop. He's only he's 25 years old, but I suppose history repeats itself, because when he was 15, I did wait, at least let him have another summer or two but we put him in the parts warehouse no air conditioning, loading parts trucks In Savannah. That's brutal, it was a lot, yeah. And then he did a tour of duty as a porter.

Announcement :

Okay.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

When the dealership was under construction, so there was no building and no customer lounge. And then we transitioned him into sales. So all through high school and summers from college, he worked and he learned. From college, he worked and he learned, and he's been back as an adult. For a year and a half he got his brokerage license. He, like me, wanted to do his to prove he could do something on his own outside of the family business, which I felt like was important.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Do you always know? We wanted to be, ultimately, though, in the car business he did.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, yeah, he all through college. You know, every day we would talk and he would ask me you know how many we sold today or how? So?

Jim Fitzpatrick:

and so what are the gross's kind of your manager? What do the grosses look like? You're a little off here.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

He's always held me accountable. Let's say, that's pretty cool.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, what do you see as some of the challenges in retail automotive, as a dealer principal, over the number of stores that you've got and the employees? Is there anything that keeps you up at night that you say we got to keep an eye on this in the industry?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Oh my gosh.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

For the few hours a night that you sleep, that would be a pretty long list, you know, I think just sort of what's going to happen next, because there's a lot of unknowns out there and trying to figure out how to navigate that. And always, I mean, I take very personally my responsibility to. I mean, I'm responsible to make sure that those 762 people can feed their families and have a good living, and that that that's. I take that very, very seriously and that's my first priority. And we, we've always been able to deliver. But, you know, margins shrink and expenses go up. That's right. So we're constantly tweaking and adjusting and trying to be better stewards of, I mean, what a wonderful opportunity I was given, sure, and I've done my best to not sit on that and grow it and honor it. Done a great job at that. Oh, thank you.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

That's fantastic, it's still a working process. I'm not done.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Let's talk a little bit about the consumer experience. That's changed over, obviously, since COVID hit. We heard a lot about it. We actually reported a lot at CBT News about digital retailing. You know there was a moment there after COVID hit that everybody said, oh, everybody's going to go online and buy cars.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We never said that.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, there were a number of you know people in the industry that thought that, though right, and they said everybody's going to want to do the full experience online. The showrooms are a waste, they're not going to want to come in. We never said any of that. So where do you think that stands today? Do you think that that the consumers are different today than they were prior to COVID? Are they? Do you have?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

a little. I think you know the consumers today. They want to do all their research online before they come into the dealership, but they're maybe 1% want to do it all the way through online. Usually they'll start the process, they'll get the information they want and then they'll either pick up the phone, email us or show up. Right, I mean, showroom traffic is still still strong, still strong. Yeah, it's that's still um a great source of business. You know we we have very um vibrant business development centers, both for um we actually our our bdc for service is probably bigger than our sales bdc at this point okay.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Is that a centralized bdc for all the stores or does every store have their own bdc?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

for service. It's centralized. Okay, wow, and that is quite an operation, then.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It is um and it runs in our support center.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We call it Okay If anybody ever says the word corporate, referring to that building it's support. It's support. That's what we exist to do. Yeah, the sales BDCs are hybrid, so we have overflow and backup, because inevitably somebody goes out for something or quits, or has a baby or whatever yeah, so we? We don't ever want to be caught short, so we have a team centrally, but we also have variable bdc people in each dealership.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Okay, how do you see AI playing a role as it relates to BDC? I've spoken to a number of dealers that said this is a game changer for us. You know the AI element as it relates to running a BDC, whether it be that it's a great tool for our staff to do a better job, or that it could actually maybe bring the headcount down because of the technology that's available today to dealers through AI. What's your take on that?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

We use it to support more as an after hours. You know you can't be staffed 24-7. Right, and you don't want to miss anything because leads are hard to come by. So we use it there. Seven, right, and you don't want to miss anything because leads are hard to come back. Yeah, um, so we, we use it there. We, I would say we're just sort of sticking our toes in at this point, exploring, we, I I think it there's a great chance it'll expand. I call me old school, but I just don't think technology replaces human interaction.

Announcement :

Yeah, I think it complements it and it

Jane Vaden Thacher:

supplements it, but I don't think people still want a personal connection, a personal experience. They want to feel important, they don't want to feel like they're just on the phone.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

I mean, they don't want to feel like you got a robot on the phone.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, I mean, we're just not to that point yet.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

So you're just kind of using it as a filler to where, if somebody can't be there, then and we use it for things like helping us write job descriptions and, you know, chat, gpt.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah, there you go there you go.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

That's fantastic. So there's so many dealers, as you know, that are looking at Volkswagen today and saying, hey, you're coming out with a whole new brand of car. Scout guess started that to say we're going to sell directly to consumers. Is that a concern of yours that the future might be made up of a number of ways to acquire a car without being that, without the consumer going to a franchise dealer?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Sure, it's a concern, yeah, but you know, tesla's been in this market for a number of years and and they do fine, but they really haven't had much of an effect on us. And I just I believe that the franchise system and the franchise laws in various states right, unfortunately, the states that I'm in there they're very favorable to dealers, yeah, it's good. I just don't think that you can take all of that away. I mean it. I don't think that will happen and you still have to have the parts and service operations. So it to me it it doesn't make sense for a manufacturer to try and undo right, right, it. It just doesn't make sense. I'm sure there will be more entries into the market.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

It's interesting to see a company like scout, which is really a division of Volkswagen, even though they say it's not to really even want to go through all of that To take on what a dealer does each day. I mean, you know firsthand it's not easy. Exactly. It's not easy, especially as it relates to service Right.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Yeah.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Because, as we know, it's one thing to sell a car, it's another to service. I think they'll learn, they'll learn and maybe they'll even change their philosophy on that right. Yeah, who knows? It's interesting. So if your dad were here today and he heard 762 employees with so many locations, what would his take be on the incredible job you've done?

Jane Vaden Thacher:

I think he'd be very proud, not just of the job we've done, but the way we, the way we do it and the way that we live up to his legacy the way we've honored our roots.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Yeah, that's fantastic, that's fantastic. Jane Vaden Thacher, thank you so much for allowing us to come in and spend some time with you. This has been fantastic. I know that our dealer audience will get a lot out of our visit with you, so thank you.

Jane Vaden Thacher:

Thank you, I enjoyed it.

Jim Fitzpatrick:

Great Thanks so much.

Announcement :

Thanks for watching the Executive Profile exclusively on CBT News. Today's episode has been sponsored by the Presidio Group.