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Introduction of A-1 PLUS AUTO | ||
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A-1 PLUS's History A1 Plus Auto Center is a successful family-run business founded by Simon and Emma Huang in 1985. At this time the couple had just moved from Houston, Texas to Los Angeles but using $10k of investment, founded a company specializing in quality used-car sales. During their first year they sold a hundred cars and in the next, over two hundred. Outgrowing the capacity of their lot in San Gabriel, the company relocated to a 20k square foot lot in Alhambra. Today the company continues to grow and anticipates exceeding a revenue of $6M in subsequent years.On why he chose to enter this industry, the general manager, Simon Huang explains, "The used-car business in the US has pretty much stabilized at a 10% profit margin. Also, people buy and sell cars all the time so there is always business to be made. My wife and I were new immigrants with limited capital, so starting our own business was a very accessible and rather natural choice for us." Huang also mentioned that he likes the fact that in this business it is important to be professional, and even more so to have good business ethics. Huang graduated from Chung-Kong University in Taiwan with a degree in Statisitcs. Since the 1970s, his family was running a used-car dealership in Taiwan and so by the time that Huang wanted to start his own business he had already accumulated over ten years of experience and knowledge in auto repair. While in college, he obtained certification as an Automobile Examiner and Driving Test Administrater. After college, he worked in the used-car business for over 10 years in Taiwan before coming to the US in 1983. Huang started his used car business in Houston but due to the local economic conditions he resolved to move to Los Angeles. Starting from a mere three cars in inventory, by leveraging the network of his customer referrals and World Journal readers, the business experienced rapid growth and achieved a total sales of over a hundred cars during the first year in Los Angeles. There are three main sources of acquiring cars, according to Huang. The first is the auction of bank-related repossessions where there are about one thousand cars per month. The second source is comprised of trade-in cars from new car dealers. Finally, the third comes from customers who bring in their car for trade or for cash. It is just as important to know how to examine a vehicle's condition as it is to know its true market value. (Article Translated from World Journal, April 28, 1987 by Ms. Mei-Mei Bao) |
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A-1 PLUS's Staff
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Servic
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Introduction of A-1 PLUS AUTO Simon Huang, a native of Taiwan, holds a degree in
Statistics, and has been in the automotive industry for over 30 years.
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