Quirk dynasty Patriarch established business to assure children’s employment

loading...

Jack Quirk Sr. has no secrets.

That’s unusual for an automobile dealer. Just ask anyone who has gone through the process of trying to purchase a vehicle. Buyers usually think the sellers have something up their sleeves.

Not Quirk, the patriarch of eight automobile dealerships in Bangor that sell 10 makes of new automobiles, and used cars, too.

Ask him to divulge an industry-insider secret about how to buy a car and he’ll reply that there’s no mystery to it – just buy the vehicle at one of his dealerships for the best deal. Call the response promotional, almost egotistical, and he’ll say it’s not intended to be that way at all.

He said he just wants to treat people with the same respect he hopes they’ll give back to him.

Plus he has a vested, financial interest in practicing that philosophy.

For Quirk to be successful, he said, he needs to sell each of his customers at least seven vehicles during the buyer’s lifetime. He wouldn’t have to sell them as many if Maine had more people living within its borders, although he’d like to sell that volume anyway.

Over the years, the personal touch – an effort to be nice to everyone – appears to have worked.

“We’ve been in business for 28 years and we’ve probably sold 40,000 to 50,000 cars,” he said.

Also, according to Quirk, a business is successful only if its employees are happy. It has nothing to do with the location of the store or the merchandise sold there. Employee satisfaction leads to customer satisfaction, he said.

In the Quirk Lube department at the Chevrolet dealership, foreman Micah Ayer said he’s never worked at a place like Quirk’s. The atmosphere, he said, is that of a happy extended family.

“It feels like they’re trying to help you out, to give you a hand up,” Ayer said. “They want to give you a taste of what they’re getting, too.”

It comes down to her “modest” father-in-law’s desire to acknowledge others, said Becky Quirk, who manages advertising and promotions for the business.

“To his credit, he says ‘hello’ to everybody,” Becky Quirk said. “He’s very outgoing that way.”

As a habit, Jack Quirk Sr. said he walks through each of his dealerships at least one day a week to talk with every employee. He’ll sit down with customers in the reception area and strike up a conversation. No sales pitches. No hassles.

“Even though we have 260 employees, it’s still sort of a family business,” Jack Quirk Sr. said.

It’s a family business that was established more than 29 years ago so that his children would have a place to work.

“That was my intent,” the elder Quirk said. “We’ve always said that’s why we have so many dealerships – because we have so many sons.”

Six of his 10 children work at the dealerships. So do two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. The family usually doesn’t get together for Thanksgiving because many of the children have other plans. They do schedule family reunions and spend time together at Christmas.

One rule at the gatherings, though: Don’t talk shop.

That rule also applies to the numerous employee parties Quirk throws throughout the year. During the summer, there’s a picnic for employees and their families. At Christmas, there’s a party for adults and their spouses, and a party for employees’ children.

“We’re here all the time talking shop,” he said from a second-floor office at the newer, expansive Chevrolet dealership on Hogan Road in Bangor. The office used to be Quirk’s, but he is passing it along to his son, Jack Jr., who will take over control of the entire Quirk automobile corporation when his father retires, though Quirk Sr. won’t say when that will be.

“I’m grooming him to take over the business,” the senior Quirk said. “I sit in on meetings and advise him. For the most part, the boys run the business and Jack [Jr.] runs the boys.”

Quirk Jr. said he is learning a lot from his father about the art of negotiation, whether it’s with customers or with automobile manufacturers.

“When it comes to trying to put something together, it always comes out that everyone wins,” Quirk Jr. said. “If we [Quirk Jr. and his brothers] follow the same approach, we shouldn’t have any trouble.”

How Quirk Sr. has run the dealerships for the last 29 years is gaining him recognition from his peers in the Bangor area business community. On Wednesday night, Quirk will receive the coveted Norbert X. Dowd award, which is presented annually by the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce to a person or people who have made a significant and positive impact on the community.

About 29 years ago, Quirk started one dealership with the blessing of his then-employer and uncle, Owen Darling, for whom he worked 20 years as a sales manager. He now sells 10 makes of automobiles, from Chevrolet and Saturn to Subaru and Mercedes Benz.

“He was my mentor,” Quirk said of Darling.

So was Quirk Sr.’s father, Johnny.

Quirk Jr., said that when his dad decided to open his first dealership – which became Village Subaru – Quirk Sr. asked his father to move his front-end alignment business into the building.

Quirk Jr. said his grandfather had a good reputation in the area for his automobile repairs, and his father knew that he could capitalize on that.

“It brought people in who normally don’t visit a dealership,” Quirk Jr. said.

But that wasn’t all. Quirk Sr. simply wanted to work with his father.

“He really enjoyed the fact that his father was working there, and that his family was working for him, too,” Quirk Jr. said. “It gave me and my brothers a different outlook on life – take care of your family and take care of your customers. It’s something that America was built on.”

In the last three decades, Quirk Sr. said, he has tried to set an example that would make him worthy of being in the same company as Darling or the other Norbert X. Dowd award winners. Besides overseeing all the dealerships, Quirk has served as director of industry trade organizations such as the Maine and Northern New Hampshire Chevrolet Advertising Council and the Maine Auto Dealers Association. He is Maine’s representative on the board of the National Auto Dealers Association.

Locally, he has served on the boards of Eastern Maine Medical Center, United Way of Eastern Maine and the Penobscot Theatre Company. He and his wife, Bunny, have financially supported the University of Maine, the YMCA, the Maine Discovery Museum and the Bangor Public Library.

To be involved in those activities, Quirk said a person has to be strong-willed and opinionated, but not controversial. Bangor is too small for one person to stir things up to the point where ideas don’t meld and nothing good is created.

That’s the advice he gives his family – be involved but don’t agitate others. The business will suffer if they do.

“People in the retail business … can’t take sides on an issue,” he said.

Quirk has his opinions – or insights – on the way Bangor has evolved over the years. He supports the local-option sales tax that would pay for a new auditorium in Bangor and he would like to see the area’s transportation infrastructure improved to build the state’s economy.

It’s taken a long time for Bangor to get to the point that new ideas should be listened to, he said.

“Bangor hasn’t done much for itself in the last 40 or 50 years,” Quirk said. “They’re starting to realize that. That’s why we pay more in taxes. There’s the old saying, ‘If you always do what you’ve always done you’re going to get what you’ve always had.'”

Adapting to change is key. Quirk said he’s had to do it. His employees regularly receive sales training to get tips on how to work with – instead of against – buyers who are educated consumers when they walk through the dealerships’ doors. Customers use the Internet to scout prices and they shop around for the dealer who is going to sell it to them at that price.

“You always have another dealer 11 miles away or 12 miles away or 17 miles away,” Quirk said.

For the last three years, Quirk has been “practicing retirement.” He hasn’t given up control to his sons just yet because he still has a few goals he’d like to reach.

Those include securing the rights to sell more brand names of automobiles and upgrading the buildings of a few of his dealerships.

It’s no secret, though, that permanent retirement will be coming soon even though a date has not been marked on the calendar. When that happens, Quirk said, he likely won’t be visiting with employees as often as in the past.

That’s going to be a hard habit to break, said Quirk, who admitted that in his current semiretirement, he unfortunately skips a week here and there.

“That’s what I miss when I’m not around,” he said.

“We miss him,” said Becky Quirk. “It’s just his presence. People go around the hallways talking about their visits with him. Just to take the time to appreciate their efforts … it’s nice. It’s nice just to have that.”