As a young boy, Gary Rome would go to his father's
car dealership, Jerry Rome Motor Car Co. on Main Street in Holyoke, to watch
him interact with customers and to learn about the business.
Those trips eventually led
to Gary Rome doing odd jobs at the
dealership. He cleaned cars. He worked in the service and parts departments as
he got older.
Eventually, Gary Rome bought the
dealership, later known as Jerry Rome Nissan, in 1997 from his dad and has
since built his own car sales empire in Holyoke and Enfield.
"My father is my
mentor, and I learned so much from him. As a kid, I always wanted to be around
him. On Saturdays, if he tried to sneak out of the house I made sure I got up
early so he could take me to work with him," Gary Rome said.
This year, Rome, 53, is
launching an expansion of his dealerships with a planned construction of a new
facility on a 19-acre parcel on Whiting Farms Road in Holyoke. But first, the
younger Rome is navigating the municipal permitting process for a zone change
from general business to a highway business needed for the project to proceed.
As he embarks on this growth
in the business, Gary Rome
continues to rely on the working world lessons which he learned from his
father.
"He has a great
business sense and a great business mind. He showed me a lot about the business
and how most of all that your word is your bond and how important your
reputation is," he said. "He always goes by the same cliché. For over
50 years he's been saying, 'Gary, it doesn't cost anything extra to be nice.
People want to do business with people they trust and feel comfortable with. We
treat everyone like family.'"
And it's family which has
connected the Romes to a long and successful relationship with the Paper City, Gary Rome said.
In 1890, Gary Rome's
great-grandfather, Louis Ricklas, opened a shoe store and a grocery store in
the city. Thirty-six years later, Gary Rome's grandparents, Samuel and Dorothy
Rome, operated a haberdashery on High Street, selling uniforms and other
clothing to city workers, including police and firefighters.
After purchasing his
father's business 18 years ago, Gary Rome redeveloped the dealership at 1000
Main St. to Gary Rome
Hyundai. Under the Gary Rome Auto Group, the Holyoke native also operates a Kia
dealership in Enfield.
But being in the car sales
business is not always met with the utmost respect, he said.
"Unfortunately, some
car dealerships have bad reputations. So it's important to me that we
demonstrate to our customers, who are ultimately our friends, that we treat you
like you're a family member and trust us," he said.
For the past two years, Gary Rome Hyundai has received
Hyundai's President's Award as a top-10 dealer out of 812 dealers in the
country for customer satisfaction.
"We've honed customer
satisfaction as our skill and are focused on taking care of people," said
Gary Rome, who lives in Longmeadow with his wife, Jane Rome, and their
children, Will, 12, and Sydney and Jake, 8, a twin girl and boy.
In an industry in which
mega-car dealerships are popping up all over, including in Western
Massachusetts, Gary Rome says one of the biggest challenges to staying
competitive - as inventory is the great equalizer - is finding the right
personnel.
"I am very lucky I have
found great staff who work hard and have my same work ethic. Many of our staff
have been with me for a long time," he said, noting Cliff Dexhiemer,
general sales manager, will retire in April after 18 years.
Currently, his Hyundai
dealership employs 62 people, while Enfield Kia has 29 employees.
Even Rome's dog, Jack, a
5-year-old Vizsla Hungarian hunting dog, is a part of the company's advertising
campaign and goes to work with him every day.
This file photo from 2012
was taken as the Holyoke Public Library and Gary Rome Auto Group launched a
"Drive into the Future" raffle to raise money for the restoration of
the Holyoke Public Library where the first prize was a three-year lease of a
Hyundai Elantra. Gary Rome and Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse are shown here making
the announcement.
One of the main reasons Gary
Rome plans to build another dealership in Holyoke is to not only make it more
convenient for customers, but also to benefit the city where the family
business has its roots, he said. If approved, the new Gary Rome Hyundai
dealership would add a net gain of 50 full-time employees and as many as 25
part-timers. The new facility would also provide additional tax and utility
revenue to the city, he said.
Holyoke Gas & Electric
Department awarded a contract last year to Gary Rome to purchase the Whiting
Farms Road property for $2,050,000.
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