Schuman for sale
The longtime Honolulu automotive
company is working on a deal,
Richard Schuman says
Automotive company Schuman Carriage Co., founded in 1893, is for sale and is working on a deal, an official confirmed.
"Are we working on a deal? Yes," said Richard Schuman, company director, operations manager and descendant of founder Gustave William Schuman.
Automotive lines carried by Schuman's South Beretania Street dealerships include Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Hummer and Oldsmobile.
The prospect of a sale was raised in January in a company memo to bargaining unit employees represented by International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 142, though Schuman did not confirm a sale was being considered at the time.
Service technicians, warehouse and parts staffers, delivery drivers and support personnel have been working under a contract that expired at the end of September. No new agreement has been reached, despite periodic meetings, Schuman said.
Union officials did not return calls.
Separately, Schuman is selling two NAPA stores it initially kept when it sold other NAPA stores, a warehouse and wholesale parts business to Atlanta-based Genuine Parts Co. last year.
One of the stores being sold, the NAPA in Kakaako, will close. Its inventory and employees will be consolidated into the Kalihi NAPA store at 640 N. King St., which was bought by Genuine Parts in the earlier transaction.
Genuine Parts was also to buy the Wahiawa NAPA store at 651 Kilani Ave., according to a June 2 notice received Tuesday by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Also Tuesday, however, another potential buyer popped up for the Wahiawa location.
"When you give someone the opportunity to own their own store, work it as a mom-and-pop, they usually do well," Richard Schuman said.
The Kailua NAPA store will remain under Schuman ownership.