Family Owned Companies: O’Meara Motors

For this issue’s Family-Owned Companies feature – an annual ColoradoBiz staple we’re focusing on family businesses that are at least 50 years old, a fact that, by itself, makes them exceptional: According to a study by the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, the average lifespan of a family-owned business is 24 years.

The five companies profiled below stand out for another reason: They’ve all survived beyond the original founder to ownership by subsequent generations. In fact, two of them – O’Meara Motor Co. and Warneke Paper Box – are now in their fourth generation. How rare is that? According to the Small Business Administration, only 30 percent of family businesses in the U.S. survive into the second generation, only 12 percent to the third generation, and only 3 percent into the fourth and beyond.

If these Colorado businesses have one trait in common, besides their longevity, it’s their adaptation to changing times, and the ability of new generations of ownership to see the business through fresh eyes and new possibilities, while paying heed to what has worked for previous generations.

O’Meara Motors

Founded: 1913

Fourth generation

Northglenn, CO

Website: www.omearamotors.com

The 138th employee of Ford Motor Co., Alfred O’Meara Sr. moved to Denver in 1913 after he was stricken with tuberculosis. He survived, and Henry Ford soon approached him to open Colorado’s first Ford dealership. The 300-employee company now has Volkswagen and GMC dealerships along with the longstanding Ford operation.

Alfred O’Meara Jr. took over in 1938, and his son, Brian O’Meara, assumed the title of general manager in 1974. The fourth generation is front and center in 2024, with Vice President of Operations Evan O’Meara and his brother, Paige O’Meara, in leadership positions.

Evan calls his great-grandfather a “diehard Ford guy.” In 1925, Alfred Sr. found a publisher for a short book “on how to sell Fords, so my great-grandfather literally wrote the book on how to sell cars.” Lessons from the book still apply today, he adds. “Make a friend, make an impression. Be helpful. All the things.”

Evan and Paige eschewed the dealership to focus on their punk band, The Eight Bucks Experiment, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but later joined O’Meara Motors full-time. (Music runs in the family: Brian played in a Denver rock band, The Daniels, in the 1960s.)

There was a learning curve upon joining the family business.

“The first month I was there, I sold half a car,” laughs Evan. “That’s not good. I had a conversation with myself. I’m going to try and be helpful. I sold nine by the 15th of the next month.

“Family and business shouldn’t go together as a general rule,” Evan says. “You love your mom unconditionally and in business, it’s, ‘What you did for me lately,’ so all family businesses are going to struggle in that arena.”

On the other hand, the close-knit culture has its benefits. “I’ve been to lots of weddings and, unfortunately, a few funerals of employees. It’s just a different vibe. You can’t talk to Mr. AutoNation.”