1 employee says closure came without warning
By mid-afternoon Wednesday, no customers wandered through the lot at Bill Heard Chevrolet as a stream of newly jobless employees drove out the front entrance.
The dealership on University Drive closed Wednesday along with 12 other Bill Heard locations in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Texas and Nevada.
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The Columbus, Ga.-based parent company, Bill Heard Enterprises - once the nation's largest Chevy dealer - issued a statement Wednesday that blamed a difficult business environment for the shutdown. The release said the company "simply did not have the resources needed to continue to operate."
Clayton Hanna, the Huntsville dealership's public relations director, said vehicles that were in the service department or body shop Wednesday would be taken care of. Asked about pending work in the service department, Hanna said, "Bear with us."
The local dealership "will no longer be Bill Heard Chevrolet," he said, declining to elaborate.
Rumors circulated Wednesday that a California-based company had bought the Huntsville dealership, but that could not be confirmed.
GMAC Financial Services last month discontinued credit for new inventory for some of the company's dealerships, which then stood at 14. The dealership in Scottsdale, Ariz., closed Sept. 12.
About 2,700 employees are affected by the closings, according to a company news release.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday, employees at the Huntsville dealership were asked to gather. They were told that the dealership was closing and that they should leave the premises, said one employee, who asked not to be identified. The employee said the notice came without warning.
The employee estimated that the Huntsville dealership had more than 100 employees. He said worker questions about paychecks were not addressed during the brief meeting.
Bill Heard's five Georgia dealerships have been dogged by a lawsuit brought by that state alleging deceptive and misleading business practices. That case is pending. It has no connection to any Bill Heard locations outside Georgia.
The company said in its release that high gas prices, a large inventory of heavy trucks and sport utility vehicles, and the general weakness in the economy left it unable to continue.
At the time of the closing, there were customers on the Huntsville lot, an employee said, many likely drawn by GM's employee pricing program that offered steep discounts.
The customers were asked to leave.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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