Duane Hicks
Jim MacDonald Motors will have a new owner as of Jan. 2, 2019.
Nick Beyak, who currently owns Sunset Country Ford here and Dryden GM, has purchased a third dealership.
“Being from Fort, and having the GM dealership here in Dryden and the Ford dealership down there, it was a logical choice,” Beyak told the Times on Monday from Dryden.
“Jim [MacDonald] has had a long career in Fort Frances and he was looking to retire,” he added. “And we had a lot of GM customers already in Fort.
“It was a good fit for us for all those reasons.”
Beyak noted his late father, Tony, sold Causeway Pontiac GMC to MacDonald in August, 2000 when the Beyak family moved to Dryden to buy the GM dealership there.
“Now it’s certainly nice to be buying that back from Jim,” said Beyak, noting the purchase deal also includes the former Causeway Pontiac GMC building located next to Lakewood Tire.
“I was in the building Friday and I have to say it was pretty touching to be in the building where my dad started everything,” he admitted.
“It gave me a pretty good feeling to have that building back. . . . With the role model he was for me, the teacher he was for me, it was very touching.”
Beyak said “the customer is our number-one focus” is his business philosophy and that will continue to hold true at MacDonald Motors.
He noted he will be living in Fort Frances “more full-time” than he is now and spending a fair amount of his time at MacDonald Motors after he assumes ownership.
“I am looking forward to that,” Beyak remarked. “Working with the new staff there while still spending at Sunset Ford and Dryden GM.”
Providing a bit of insight into the industry, Beyak noted automobile manufacturers are downloading more and more expenses and responsibilities to the dealerships themselves and dealer groups, or these dealers with multiple locations, are becoming more and more common.
“It’s getting harder and harder to operate as a stand-alone dealership,” he explained. “To have an internet marketing manager for all three places is just one example.
“You’ve got to be on the internet, you’ve got to market on the internet,” Beyak stressed. “But for one store to have one position dedicated to that, it’s sometimes difficult to justify.
“So this strengthens our whole organization, everything that my parents started, and solidifies it for the future,” he noted.
“You have to be doing this now, in my opinion.”
