Leslie Doggett Industries' automotive retail arm expands in Texas

Leslie Doggett Industries' Doggett Automotive Group bought three dealerships from Craig Kinsel and Joe Bob Kinsel of Kinsel Motors and the Kinsel family in a transaction this month.

The Houston auto group acquired Kinsel Toyota, Kinsel Ford-Lincoln and Kinsel Mazda. The dealerships were renamed Doggett Toyota of Beaumont, Doggett Ford-Lincoln of Beaumont and Doggett Mazda of Beaumont.

Beaumont is in East Texas.

Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., represented the seller in the transaction that closed May 1.

Leslie Doggett Industries includes businesses selling, renting or supporting industrial equipment, automotive and light trucks, as well as highway and vocation trucks and trailers. It's a large John Deere construction equipment dealer. Its businesses have locations in Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas and Northern Mexico.

The company in 2018 bought its first auto retail dealership, the former Lone Star Ford in Houston, previously owned by Sonic Automotive Inc. It also is a longtime Toyota material handling dealer, the company said.

It expects the Kinsel dealerships will add more than $200 million in sales volume within 18 months.

"Doggett is a huge believer in the future of Ford given the current Ford strategy," Doggett Industries President William Doggett said in a statement.

And "with Toyota, we have been partners for more than 30 years and we are extremely excited to be an auto dealer for them," he added.

The Kinsels said selling the business was a hard decision.

"For four generations, Beaumont residents have counted on Kinsel Motors to help them buy and service their vehicles," co-owner Joe Bob Kinsel said in a statement. "We're grateful to the community and honored to have received so much friendship and support for the past 80 years."