Emile Joseph Bourgeois Sr.
May 25, 2009
Madeline Marie Cadiere Usie
May 29, 2009
The Barkers have long been in the automobile industry, opening their first car dealership, Terrebonne Ford, in 1917.
The family added Dick Barker Lincoln, Mercury and Mazda in 1969, and Barker Mitsubishi in 1990. In 2003, they decided to expand their car brands once again and acquired a Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership on West Main Street.
The Barkers’ first option was to go back to the basics by assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the current Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership. The auto dealer’s goal was to be the best Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership in the Tri-parish area.
At that time, General Manager Te-Cye Adams said the dealership had about 61 employees. But in order for it to be the best, they had to start hiring the best.
“We started offering employment to people with experience,” he said. “We went on an aggressive hiring campaign to grow the business.”
The Barkers got aggressive in selling automobiles. They started stocking more automobiles, whether they were new or used cars, and increased their parts inventory.
“That’s what they wanted us to do,” Adams said. “Stay on top of trying to be the best. Get the best selection of inventory, both new and used, and just come to work every day.”
After the first two years in business, Adams said the company’s sales shot through the roof. He attributed it to the Barkers’ implementing the policies and procedures that were working at the other dealerships.
“Business really picked up,” Adams said. “We took some of those policies and procedures and applied them here. We realized that things could be a whole lot better. Some of the changes worked and some didn’t. Those that didn’t work, we stopped and figured out what would work for our environment.”
“To this day we are still working on our goal to improve because as you finally think you have something mastered, the way you do business changes, and you have to change it to meet the needs of the customers,” he added.
Around the five-year mark, Adams said things started to settle down. The growth was not as big as it was when the Barkers took over. But then everyone ran into Hurricane Katrina, and business drastically changed for the better.
“The 2005 storms really kick-started our business again,” he said. “The parish had an influx of people from other parishes, and as a consequence business got really good.”
The oilfield industry was back to normal after the storms and 2006 was an even better year for the dealership. That sound business carried over into 2007.
“The demand for cars got better,” Adams said. “People began to reward themselves for working hard and started upgrading their vehicle for vacations and travel.”
Then, the dealership introduced its new GMC Sierra Crew Cab in 2008.
“When we introduced our new crew cab, our sales went through the roof again,” Adams said. “We were never into the crew cab business, but everyone else was. Once those cars became available, we added more customers.”
After nine years, the Barkers were offering quality new and pre-owned Buicks, Pontiacs and GMCs to their customers’ likings. With the skilled workers on staff, the dealership began offering service repairs including brake work, new tires, tune-ups and air conditioning work and transmission work.
The dealership incorporated a body shop that does collision work on all makes and models, and a parts shop with an average of about $500,000 inventory.
The evolution of cars has changed drastically over the last nine years. Adams said the dealership reduced its stock of Buick brand names from eight to three: the Buick Enclave, Lacrosse and Lucerne.
With the Pontiacs, the Barkers went from offering the Sunfire, Grand Prix and the Bonneville to the Pontiac G6, G8, G5 Coupe, G3 and the Vibe.
But, GMC is where the big story is. Adams said GMC sales spiked when the dealership introduced the new Yukon in 2001. The dealership sells the Yukon XL, a standard Yukon and the Yukon Denali. The other GMC models include the Acadia and the Sierra pickup truck.
However, like many other dealerships worldwide, the Barkers saw a slight decline in its SUV sales last year because of higher gas prices.
Adams said in 2009 the business recovered with its SUV sales so much that the Barker Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealership is in the top 50 of Buick, Pontiac and GMC dealerships in the nation, and 19th in the South Central Zone.
It’s tough staying competitive in today’s market. To stay ahead of the curve, Adams said a dealership has to know its product and keep account of its inventory and have trained employees.
“You have to know what a customer wants and stay in tune to what’s your best seller,” he said. “When you look at the new technology you have to understand that some people want it and some don’t, so you have to pay attention to what they want.”
The dealership’s sales team is highly trained. The Barkers spend lots of money training its employees.
“Its part of their job to make sure that they are 100 percent trained in the time that GMC says they have to be,” Adams said. “That helps us stay abreast of what is going on.”
Adams said he has seen more changes to the industry in 2009 than he has in his 34 years in the business. The economy has presented a lot of challenges for the automakers and dealerships.
“We are seeing a lot of things happening with General Motors. There is lot of belt-tightening going on,” he said. “There are a lot of people feeling the pains of the economy. Thank God we live in Houma and have not felt it as other parts of the country.”
But, bad as it all is, there is a bright side, Adams said. He believes 2009 is going to be the year Barker Buick Pontiac and GMC will grow the most because the dealership went back to the basics.
“We are going to be a leaner, meaner and stronger company in the end,” he said.
Dale Theriot takes a closer look at a GMC Sierra SLT with Barker Buick, Pontiac & GMC sales associate Jerome Fabre. The dealerships introduced the Sierra crew cab last year and “sales went through the roof,” said general manager Clarence “Te-Cye” Adams.
