Clements sold to Rydell Auto Group

By Tim Krohn
The Free Press

MANKATO December 31, 2008 09:52 pm

— One of Mankato’s oldest businesses, Clements Chevrolet is being purchased by the Rydell Auto Group of Grand Forks.
Clements started in Mankato in 1913.
Rydell is the largest dealer group in the nation of dealerships operating under a common business philosophy but under different individual ownership.
It is the second sale of a local dealership in recent weeks.
Mankato Honda was recently purchased by Twin Cities-based Luther Automotive Group. Luther has 21 locations in Minnesota and two in Fargo. The Honda dealership is expected to move from its Riverfront location to the former Heintz lot off Madison Avenue.
The Rydell Group has grown to about 70 dealerships in 11 states and is on track to have 100 dealerships.
Leonard Rydell opened the first dealership in Grand Forks in 1954. Family members continue to run the business.
More than half the dealerships in the Grand Forks-based group are owned independently. Rydell buys dealerships through a holding company and turns them over to an owner, often a manager in another Rydell dealership groomed for the position, according to a story about the family in the Grand Forks Herald. The owner then pays the holding company back until he owns the business outright.
The owner is autonomous but attends quarterly meetings and shares the philosophies and practices of the Rydell group.