Henderson Ford president to retire

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Randy Henderson Jr. isn’t so much retiring as he is taking some time to feed other passions.

“That is the plan. Retirement may be a strong word because I don’t know that I’ll ever not be doing something, but my desire is to not be doing day-to-day operational automotive stuff,” says the president of Henderson Ford and Quick Lane Tire and Auto Center. “After 36 ½ years or so of doing this I’ve agreed to let someone else do a lot of those kinds of day-to-day things.”

That someone else is Henderson’s daughter, Aki Henderson, who entered the family business as a lot girl in 2007 when she took a summer off of work to explore the Webster dealership and the possibility of a career change.

“I moved up here to check out the industry. He had me work on the lot, so I was a 30-year-old lot girl. It was interesting,” she said, laughing. “And then he had me follow and shadow and kind of work in every department: parts, service, the back office, accounting and sales.”

Henderson said when she first arrived at the company she was not aware how varied a dealership was.

“There are four businesses under one roof,” she explained. “You’ve got parts, service, new cars and used cars. Then you have accounting. So that intrigued me.”

So intrigued, in fact, that she moved her son and daughter to New York to settle in at a job she never thought she would do.

“She just called me one day and said, ‘Dad, I want to come up there and work,’ after I’d been trying to urge her for many years to get involved in the car business. And I said, ‘Who’s this?’” the elder Henderson said facetiously. “Aki is a very smart young lady.”

A graduate of Ohio State University, the younger Henderson spent some time in the communications industry, as well as in pharmaceuticals, before making her way to the Rochester area. Since 2007, Henderson has worked her way through each of the departments.

“Once I decided I was going to stay I started off in sales and then got promoted to finance and then I got promoted to new-car manager,” she recalled, noting that while her son was heavily involved in football she took some time in 2009 or so to start a new division within the family business. “I created and got our Business Development Center going.”

The dealership’s BDC handles internet sales, a growing segment of the business.

“It went from probably 10 percent of our business to probably about 40 percent of our business,” she said. “I think it was my knowledge of selling cars and being a new-car manager. I was very effective in there because I knew how to answer the questions.”

In 2012 Henderson attended the yearlong National Automobile Dealers Association Dealer Academy, graduating from the program in 2013. She then moved back to North Carolina so that she and her daughter’s father could co-parent their child.

While back in North Carolina, Henderson worked at other dealerships, where she said she learned a great deal about what to do and what not to do in the automotive industry.

“I had the pleasure of working for other dealers, was able to learn an awful lot about things we can do here,” she said. “But I was also able to learn a lot of things you shouldn’t do. It was good because at that point I had only worked for my father.”

Upon returning to her father’s dealership in 2016, Henderson was made operations manager. Earlier this year she was named general manager, a title she will keep after her father’s retirement, scheduled for later this year.

Aki’s 25-year-old son, Rod Stevens, serves as the company’s finance manager, while her brother, Brian, also is a part of the family legacy at Henderson Ford. He currently serves as the assistant Quick Lane manager. His role is to assist customers with their maintenance and light repair needs and get them back on the road quickly.

Brian Henderson has worked at the Ford dealership for roughly a decade and worked for some 15 years at each of the family’s previously owned dealerships in the Rochester area. He said he hopes to continue the dream his father built for future generations.

“We have been involved in this industry since we were kids and he has taught us so much,” Brian said. “I am proud of everything he has accomplished over his career.”

Hailing from Richmond, Va., Randy Henderson entered the automotive industry in 1982 as a sales consultant at an Oldsmobile dealership, a job he originally dismissed. His second month on the job he was named salesperson of the month, and during his first year he held the title five times.

By 1997 Henderson had found his way to Rochester, via a 10-year stint in Ohio, where he purchased Webster Chrysler Jeep Inc. as part of an agreement with Chrysler to move to a larger market.

Henderson eventually purchased Webster Ford and the former Doan Lincoln-Mercury/Nissan dealerships. He later sold the Nissan franchise and consolidated the dealership at its Webster home. Henderson lost the Chrysler franchise when the automaker announced that it would sever ties with nearly 800 dealers, including more than two dozen in New York.

Henderson Ford employs 51 full-time staffers and a dozen or so part-timers, Randy Henderson said. The company recently began an employee incentive program, similar to an employee stock option plan, whereby profit-sharing is tied to the store’s production. It is a rare concept in the industry, he said.

“But it’s something I thought would be beneficial for both our staff and the company as a whole to have everybody focus on the things that are good for the company, good for the customer.”

Aki plans to continue her father’s legacy at the dealership. She has the distinction of being one of just a few African-American women to run a car dealership in the region, a fact that’s not lost on her, but one she doesn’t emphasize either.

“What I bring that’s different is a woman’s perspective,” she said of her own business acumen. “Eighty percent of the car buying decision is made by women. I think men feel comfortable with us and women definitely feel more comfortable with us.”

Henderson also said car buying should be fun, exciting and a memorable moment.

“We want our customers to feel like they’re part of our family as well,” she said. “So I definitely want to keep that going.”

In his two decades in Rochester and nearly four in the industry, Henderson said what he has brought to the table is his life’s philosophy: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

“In this business, it doesn’t always have a reputation for being that way. So one of the things that’s been very important to me is just being involved in the community and treating customers and staff the way that I would want to be treated,” Henderson said.

To that end, the dealership and the Henderson Family Ford Foundation has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars back into the community, particularly to faith-based charities and those whose mission is to keep kids in school. The dealership has for the past several years given a car to a Webster high school student, and for the second year Henderson will award a car to a Rochester City School District student.

The purpose, Henderson said, is to “drive more emphasis on education and excellence.” In the city, the program is designed to drive attendance, which in turn will help with graduation rates.

Upon his retirement, Henderson expects to do more of the same when it comes to charitable activities. As an ordained minister, Henderson also recently took the training necessary to earn his certification as a senior chaplain ordained.

“I have no idea what I’m going to be doing with that, but that is something I believe is one of the things I’ll be doing in my spare time,” he said, grinning.

He will never fully retire from the car business, Henderson acknowledges.

“Yeah,” he said, stretching the word sheepishly. “It’s something in my blood.”

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