Salt Lake City — Larry H. Miller Dealerships acquired seven dealerships in the state of Arizona; three stores in Avondale and four in Tucson.

The Avondale stores include Avondale Chrysler Jeep; Avondale Dodge Ram; and Avondale Fiat. The Tucson stores include Tucson Dodge Ram; Tucson Chrysler Jeep; Tucson Fiat and Tucson Volkswagen. The acquisition is the largest in the company’s history.

“Larry H. Miller Dealerships is committed to growth, being a good community partner and providing meaningful employment to members of the communities where we conduct business,” said Dean Fitzpatrick, president.

These additional stores will increase the company’s overall volume by approximately 15 percent and take it into a new market in Tucson. Larry H. Miller Dealerships is now operating 19 different automotive brands at 55 locations in seven Western states.

Negotiations for the Arizona dealerships, purchased from Doug Moreland and John Grant, began seven months ago. Steve Starks, executive vice president for the Larry H. Miller Management Corp. represented the Miller’s interest in the agreement and has been leading the company’s quest for new acquisitions for the past four years. “Not only is this the largest dealership acquisition in our company’s history, we believe it is among the largest acquisitions in the industry over the past several years,” Starks said.

Larry H. Miller Dealerships will retain the existing employees of the seven newly-acquired dealerships, bringing the total number of Arizona-based personnel to more than 1,000. Overall, the company employs more than 3,700 people.

“An important part of the purchase value of these dealerships is the employees,” said Fitzpatrick. “We are impressed with the corporate culture at these stores and the high-caliber, experienced people who work there. We feel that they will be a great fit for our organization.”