The Roosevelt Robinson III file
Age: 54
Job: President of Middletown Ford and New Carlisle Automotive
Home: South Dayton
Family: Wife Mickie, two children
Education: Bachelor's degree in applied math, Brown University, Providence, RI; Master's of Business Administration, University of Chicago
Associations: Member of The Chamber of Commerce Serving Middletown, Monroe and Trenton
MIDDLETOWN — Residents of Middletown, Trenton and Franklin who have ever bought a car have probably considered shopping at Middletown Ford.
Roosevelt Robinson III bought the dealership from Ford more than 20 years ago and has survived the evolution of the Internet; a more than year-long lockout at AK Steel Holding Corp., once Middletown’s largest employer; and a recession soon after the lockout.
The automobile industry has been one of the faces of the nation’s economic woes, and its restructuring led many dealers to lose or sell their franchises from the manufacturers.
For example, in 2004 Robinson bought New Carlisle Automotive, which was once a Ford dealer and now sells used cars.
Middletown Ford sells new and used cars, and services all makes and models. Today it employs about 38 people, Robinson said.
Q: What is your company best known for?
A: From my perspective, hopefully we tried to be supportive of the community over the years because the community is supportive of us. I think as far as being a local dealer, a Ford dealer, and again providing service ... I think just being an all around good place to go to get a good deal and fair treatment.
Q: What are the major goals the company is currently working on and how is the company working to achieve those goals?
A: I think the goals the last few years have been just to stabilize the business. The economy's been pretty rough the last few years here ... (there was the) lockout at AK in 2006 and it was very damaging to the community for a little over a year to all business here. And then it ended and things started to come back and then the total economy sort of went tank in '08.
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing the business today and why?
A:
I think the biggest challenge is just being sure that we’re tracking in the right direction. There’s a lot of people still feeling uneasy. ... There’s still a lot of people who are unemployed, unfortunately. That still needs to come back around. We’re sort of in the middle between Dayton; Dayton got hurt worse than Cincinnati, but you sort of see that here in terms of jobs losses. There’s still a ways to come back and we just hope that it stays steady and we don’t have a double dip (recession). So trying to think positively and looking to as the economy comes back, it grows.
Q: What have been keys to the company’s success over its history?
A: Probably having been here as long as I have. It's given us a foundation. I think if I had only been here a few years, it would have been tougher because you just don't have the customer base, the financial base to weather the storms.
Q: What does your company do better than its competitors?
A: I think it's hard to say. I think everybody does different things better. We try to listen to our customers a little better, we try to offer our customers a range of opportunities, we try to treat our customers a little better. And again, there's many people out there that are strong, worthy competitors, so it's hard to say that we do things better. It's just that we compete. Sometimes we have to work a lot harder due to the financial situation in terms of trying to get financing for people and we're willing to do that and we signed up with a company that allowed us to offer guaranteed credit approval, so we have those avenues available for people to try to put them in a vehicle.
Q: Where do you see the company in five years?
A: Given the last five years, I would hesitate to forecast because I tell people if I can forecast that well, I would pick the lottery number. I see us being an ongoing business. A lot depends on external factors in terms of the general economy itself. We see our business growing and us growing with it, and hopefully the community growing as well.
Q: What is something the company wishes it could do better?
A: There's always everything you're looking at to do better. You're always trying to continuously improve.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson the company learned from the recent recession and how is it being applied?
A: I just think sometimes you've got to evaluate everything's that's going on and that there are no sacred things that you always do — that sometimes you have to re-evaluate. I really learned from the lockout. I don't know (that) the lockout caught me by surprise. I think the fact it lasted as long as it did was a shock to everybody. You build a business over time and you have employees, and at one time we had 50-something employees and we don't have that anymore.
Q: Tragesser (Ford of Ross) lost its franchise with Ford. Rose is now Rose Automotive (in Hamilton). How important is your relationship with Ford to your success?
A: It’s real important. They’re the franchisor, we’re the franchisee. That’s like saying how important the McDonald’s relationship with McDonald’s corporate. I mean, you can be independent and it’s a totally different business, but it’s a whole part of who the business is.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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