Frederick Hertrich IV, vice president of Hertrich Family Automobile Dealerships, Seaford, is Delaware’s nominee for the 2019 Time Dealer of the Year award.
Hertrich is one of 51 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 102nd annual National Automobile Dealers Association Show in San Francisco in January 2019.
Hertrich, 43, was chosen to represent the Delaware Automobile & Truck Dealers’ Association.
“The most rewarding part of my automotive career has been the opportunity to use the business as a platform to affect the lives of individuals in our community,” Hertrich said.
A 1993 graduate of Seaford High School in Seaford, Hertrich earned a B.S. in finance and marketing at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA in 1997.
Hertrich was born into the car business, a business that his grandfather and father, and now he, has built into an automotive group that includes 21 stores across Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Colorado.
“As a child, I would go to the Ford dealership to visit my dad and the Pontiac Buick dealership to see my grandfather,” he remembered. “I spent many hours there doing odd jobs. When I was a teenager, I officially joined the team and worked in the car wash.”
Hertrich’s father made sure that he worked in every job in the company. “This allowed me to become a student of the business and to better understand the challenges of each position,” he said, “but most importantly, it gave me empathy for the people doing the job. My goal is to use the business as a platform to grow, develop and train the individuals in our dealerships and push them beyond what they thought possible for themselves so that they can create a legacy of their own.”
Hertrich also believes that being a part of a family business can be very powerful, as long as there is a lot of gratitude. “It has been an honor and a privilege to get to know the customers we serve and give back to the community where we live,” he said.
“Last year alone, we were able to put $1 million back into the community,” he said. “We have made significant investments in local hospitals to improve infrastructure and help fund nursing schools. We have sponsored classrooms, provided jerseys for many teams, walked in many 5Ks, sponsored autism events and given to local fire departments, as well as countless other organizations,” Hertrich said.
Hertrich and his wife, Lyndie, have three children.