Description
Sonic Automotive is a Fortune 500 company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, and is the fifth largest automotive retailer in the United States. The company's founder and Executive Chairman O. Bruton Smith is also the Executive Chairman and a director of Speedway Motorsports, LLC.
Sonic Automotive operates in 14 states with more than 100 dealerships representing 25 different brands of automobiles. The dealerships market new and used cars, replacement parts and vehicle maintenance, as well as collision repair services.
History
Sonic Automotive was launched as a public company in November 1997 by O Bruton Smith. At the time, the company had 20 stores, representing 15 brands and several hundred employees. The company's founder and CEO is also the Executive Chairman and a director of Speedway Motorsports (NYSE: TRK). The Smith family holds a third of the shares outstanding but has about 80% of the voting power because of a dual-class structure with Super-voting stock.
Sonic ranked 298th on the 2018 Fortune 500 list. The company also is a member of the Russell 2000 Index.
In February 2020, CEO David Smith was charged with three misdemeanor counts and one for felony assault by strangulation. He received support from the company board.
