Couples start up auto sales enterprise.

Byline: RETAIL NOTEBOOK By Joe Mosley The Register-Guard

Three local couples have pooled their skills and money and found something they can all do together.

They're operating a used car business.

Northwest Auto Group, which opened last month at 3540 Franklin Blvd. in Glenwood, is a joint venture of Gina and Mike Coontz, Cheryl and Brian Matthews and Sheridan and Gary Nyden.

"We offer just about anything," Gina Coontz says. "We're probably heaviest on trucks and SUVs, but we have a great variety."

While all three couples are financial partners in the business, only Gina Coontz and Brian Matthews, who are siblings, are currently working full time at it - Coontz as the office manager and Matthews as the general manager.

Their employees include an Internet manager, an inventory manager and a sales staff that includes two Spanish speakers, in hopes of attracting Hispanic customers.

"Brian's been in this business for years," Coontz says. "He's worked for large dealerships ... and he wanted his own baby so he could do things the way he thinks they should be done.

"We're very low-pressure and customer-oriented," she says. "There's no game-playing here. We're kind of offering ourselves as an alternative to going to a big dealership, but you're not going to get a roadside pot-lot."

That would be a car lot with poor products and questionable ethics, and Coontz says Northwest Auto Group has neither.

The six partners put together an investment of about $300,000 to buy inventory and set themselves up in the business. The lot has a capacity of about 100 cars and trucks, and 40 to 50 late-model vehicles are currently in stock.

"Our inventory is growing daily," Coontz says.

The online side of their business is at www.northwest autogroup.com.

Teahouse takes a dip

into wholesale business

On the other side of the interstate, one of Eugene's best-known tea businesses is making a shift from teahouse to a strictly retail/wholesale outlet.

Savoure, which has operated at 201 W. Broadway since 2000, will move late this month to a smaller storefront at 1508 Willamette St. - the former Willoughby Hearing Aid Center.

Owner Cindi Potter says the complexion of her business will change as well, with a discontinuation of the tea salon that she operates at the downtown location. The new shop will continue offering over-the-counter sales of bulk tea to retail customers, but also will shift into wholesale.

"There aren't very many West Coast tea providers," Potter says. "I thought I could expand and do that, as well.

"The wholesale is new - that's kind of the new business - so I've got to build that up. But I've got a plan, and I think the West Coast in particular is a good market."

Potter said that she expects her wholesale customers to range from tea houses and restaurants to antique stores and other businesses.

She imports her teas primarily from India, China and Japan, and her varieties range from straight black and green teas to fruity-flavored summer teas and wintertime favorites such as chai and Earl Grey.

The most common price is $19.80 per pound, which is good for about 200 cups of tea.

"When we first started out, we were selling tea by the quarter-pound," Potter says. "Then we expanded to where you can buy it a pound at a time. We've seen our customers up their purchases."

The primary expense in shifting to capture the wholesale market was in restructuring the company's Web site (www.savoure.com) to accommodate wholesale buyers.

"Then, of course, our tea orders will be much larger," Potter says.

Retail Notebook runs on Thursdays. Joe Mosley can be reached at 338-2384 or [e-mail].