CarMax Announces Growth in California, Five Stores Now Open in Los Angeles
RICHMOND, Va., April 1 -- CarMax, Inc. , the nation's leading specialty retailer of used cars, today announced its growth in California. With the recent opening of its locations in Irvine and Ontario, CarMax now has five stores in the Los Angeles market. CarMax also has a store in the Sacramento market, which opened in 2002.
"California's campaign for companies to invest in California now has another success story -- CarMax," said Austin Ligon, president and chief executive officer of CarMax, Inc. "Our hope is to have a total of 15 to 20 stores in the state within the next five to 10 years. Each CarMax store should contribute 100 to 150 jobs to the state, and each represents about a $15 to $30 million investment."
According to Ligon, investing in California was an easy decision for CarMax.
"California consumers readily embrace new concepts," said Ligon. "Many trends begin in California and flow to the rest of America. That is why most major auto manufacturers have design facilities in the state. In fact, California is the world's greatest auto market -- it's where the modern consumer auto industry grew up. And, CarMax already has a great success story in California. In April 2002, we opened a used car superstore at the Roseville Auto Mall near Sacramento, the nation's largest auto mall. This store was so well-received by Sacramento-area car shoppers that it has been our fastest growing CarMax store nationwide."
CarMax has a site under development in Fresno and also has several additional sites under consideration in the greater Los Angeles area.
About CarMax
CarMax, a FORTUNE 500 company and one of the FORTUNE 2005 "100 Best Companies to Work For," is the nation's leading specialty retailer of used cars. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., CarMax currently operates 60 used car superstores in 27 markets. CarMax also operates seven new car franchises, all of which are integrated or co-located with its used car superstores. During the twelve month period ended February 28, 2005, the company retailed 253,168 used cars, which is 92 percent of the total 273,804 vehicles the company retailed during that period. For more information, access the CarMax website at http://www.carmax.com/.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20011214/CARMAXLOGO )
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20011214/CARMAXLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com