American billionaire businessman Herb Chambers is the owner and President of The Herb Chambers Companies, a collection of 60 auto dealerships in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, region. He was ranked 392 out of the 400 wealthiest Americans in 2015, when he was 74 years old, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion.
Early Life
Chambers was raised in the working-class Dorchester district of Boston, where he worked as a cart collector at the neighborhood grocery store. After dropping out of high school and searching for a career in 1959, Chambers joined the US Navy as an aircraft electrician. He served for four years, earning the rank of Petty Officer Second Class.
Following his return, he pulled $500 from his mother to launch his first business, a copy distributor, which he later sold for $80 million. Herb founded A-Copy America, which grew to be the largest office copier dealership in the world, before going into the vehicle industry.
He combined that business with what is today known as Ikon in 1983. Ikon is a multinational corporation with eight operating nations that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Success Story
Herb looked for a new business challenge in 1985. He has always had a passion for cars and saw the automotive industry as being full of opportunities. After buying an Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealership in New London, Connecticut, in 1985, Chambers launched his own vehicle company.
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He made the business purchase as a result of his own disappointing dealership buying experience. Chambers established the Herb Chambers Companies after making improvements to the initial auto dealership.
Following the purchase of the Cadillac and Oldsmobile dealership in New London, General Motors authorized the purchase of a second Cadillac franchise in Rhode Island. In the same year that Hyundai entered the U.S. market, numerous suitable candidates applied for dealerships in strategic locations.
Hyundai selected Herb Chambers to be their local dealer after carefully examining each applicant’s qualifications. A little over a year later, Boston had Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Porsche stores. It goes without saying that many people applied because they wanted to buy one of these expensive cars. All three manufacturers settled on Herb Chambers as their sole choice.
For his excellent achievements in the automobile industry, Chambers received the New England Motor Press Association Executive of the Year Award in May 2017.
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With more than 17,000 employees, the Herb Chambers car dealerships produce annual sales of over 1.5 billion dollars. Herb thinks that the training he obtained from other dealers before entering the industry has contributed to the company’s exceptional success in the auto dealer industry.
Currently, Herb Chambers has four Honda dealerships in Massachusetts: Burlington, Boston, Seekonk, and Westborough. The biggest Honda dealer in New England is Herb Chambers.
Additionally, he owns New England’s highest volume Porsche, BMW, Hyundai, and Dodge dealerships.
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