Lebanon
Flanders and Patch Motor Sales in Lebanon is being sold to St. J Auto of St. Johnsbury, becoming the fourth Upper Valley auto dealership to change hands in the past 12 months.
Flanders and Patch owner Tom Thayer said he is retiring after 35 years in the car sales business and St. J Auto is the right company to take over his Ford dealership that has been located along the city’s Miracle Mile corridor since it was founded in 1919.
St. J Auto is owned by John Loschiavo, who got his start in the auto business selling used cars at Clifford’s Garage in West Hartford in the late 1980s and worked at various Upper Valley dealerships before acquiring St. J Auto’s predecessor company in 1998.
“I approached them. I knew he runs a dealership like I would. They are Vermont homegrown boys,” Thayer said of Loschiavo and his brother, Mike, who owns St. J Subaru.
Although he could have sold Flanders and Patch to one of the large dealership groups that are in an expansion mode, Thayer said, Loschiavo shares the same values in serving “small, rural” markets that require a unique approach not always appreciated by dealerships in the “big cities.”
“For the last 35 years there is nothing else I would rather have done,” Thayer said. “Most of my customers are my friends and family and most of my employees have been with me for 20 to 25 years, some longer than that.”
John Loschiavo said he is enthusiastic about returning to the Upper Valley, where he once was a minority principle in Miller Auto Group before it was sold to current owner Johanna Cicotte.
“The Upper Valley is where I cut my teeth in the car business,” Loschiavo said. “It’s a great market, a great economy and a great opportunity to come in. We’re absolutely looking to grow that business a lot.”
“We’re going to need positions to fill all facets of the company, whether it’s cleaning, sales people, office, technicians and managements slots,” he said, adding the dealership’s name will be changed to Lebanon Ford.
Flanders and Patch has about 20 employees, Thayer said, including his son, Thomas Thayer II, who heads the four-person sales team. Thayer said his son will stay on under the new owner. The deal is expected to close this week, Thayer said.
Thayer, who went to work at Flanders and Patch in 1982, bought the dealership two years later from brothers Richard and Robert Patch. The nearly 100-year-old business, which began as a Dodge dealership and then began selling Fords in 1922, was co-founded by the Patch brothers’ parents, Robert Patch and Edith Flanders Patch and Edith’s father, George Flanders, according to Thayer.
The move reflects the ongoing changes among the Upper Valley’s auto dealerships over the last year.
Rick MacLeay started the trend by selling his Norwich Subaru dealership, known as The Car Store, to Massachusetts-based Prime Motor Group, which was followed last December when Kurt Gerrish sold Gerrish Honda, located near Flanders and Patch on Mechanic Street.
Then in March, a few months after he sold the Subaru dealership, MacLeay decided to return to the car business and bought the Hyundai franchise on Sykes Mountain Avenue in White River Junction from Gateway Motors owners Charlie and Allen Hall.
Prior to the current cluster of deals, the most significant shake-up among Upper Valley auto dealerships occurred in 2015 when Miller Auto Group’s Cicotte handed the Chevrolet and Cadillac franchise back to General Motors to make way for the sale of the lot to Dartmouth Coach, which wanted to build its new bus depot at the Heater Road location.
Thayer’s retirement and sale of his business comes as similar announcements from other longtime Upper Valley family business owners appear to be a regular occurrence, including three of them located in the Miracle Mile corridor.
In September, Phyllis and William Shambo closed their construction and municipal supplies business Kibby Equipment and brothers Norm, Joe and Jim Longacre sold Longacre’s Nursery Center to Gardener’s Supply.
In June, brothers Steve and Dan Rutledge announced they would be closing their family’s multi-generation furniture business, Bridgman’s, and selling the property to Listen Community Services to become its new anchor location and headquarters. In August, Glen Crowe sold Interstate Tire in West Lebanon to Vianor, a chain of tire and auto centers.
“I think it’s just baby boomers getting ready to retire,” said Thayer, 64.
John Lippman can be reached at jlippman@vnews.com.
