A Moniteau County staple has been sold after a century of local ownership.
The Ed Morse Automotive Group of Delray Beach, Florida, bought Putnam Chevrolet Feb. 6. Bill Campbell, previous owner of the business who will still be managing the dealership, said he expects very little to change. However, the century-old Putnam name will be one of the few things to go with the new owners.
Putnam Chevrolet will become Ed Morse Chevrolet North, Campbell said.
Campbell said the process of selling the dealership started around September, when Ed Morse Automotive Group contacted him about purchasing the business. According to its website, Ed Morse also owns dealerships in Rolla, Lebanon and Saint Robert. In addition to Missouri and its home state of Florida, the dealer group also owns locations in Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. The group owns a hotel, auto parts retail store and 240,000-square-foot parts facility to service the wide variety of brands sold at its various dealerships. Campbell said Ed Morse Automotive Group sells "every brand except Kia," including domestic and foreign cars and Harley-Davidson motorcycles.
The decision to sell the dealership was based on what was best for the employees, Campbell said.
"I'm 67 years old and I didn't want them to back the black sedan, or the black station wagon, up to the front door and load me up and take me to Windmill Ridge (Funeral Service)," he said, chuckling. "So I figured that I better try to have them plan for all the employees. The Ed Morse group is an employee-friendly (firm). ... They're just letting everybody that is working here just keep on working."
Campbell said image compliance was a goal when Putnam Chevrolet built its current location on the northwest side of the U.S. Highway 50 and Missouri Highway 87 intersection, which made it easier to sell.
"The goal when we built (this location) was so it would be image compliant so General Motors (manufacturer of Chevrolet) would let us sell it to somebody else, because sometimes when there are older buildings they won't let you sell them," he said.
Campbell said service will improve since Ed Morse Automotive Group has more resources to support staff working at the California location.
"(Service is) just going to get better," he said. "They've got a lot more technology, and because there's more of them, they can help support all the employees here better."
The transition ends a century of the Putnam name in Moniteau County's automotive industry. According to a recent story detailing the company's history, C.O. Putnam founded Putnam Motor Service in 1923 in Jamestown after suffering an incident that left him handicapped. In 1928, Putnam Motor Service started selling Chevrolet vehicles. The business would expand to have locations in Jamestown, Tipton and California, but only the California location would survive. Campbell started out as a service technician in 1977, eventually climbing the ladder to manager before becoming a partner with Don Putnam, son of C.O. Putnam.
Despite more than four decades of service to Putnam Chevrolet, Campbell said the sale wasn't hard at all.
"I'm happy because they'll let me stay as long as I want, and I started to work here as a technician," he said. "In the perfect world I'll keep working on cars."
Democrat photo/Garrett Fuller — Putnam Chevrolet, a Moniteau County
staple for a century, was sold Feb. 6 to the Ed Morse Automotive Group
of Delray Beach, Florida.