Helping Others Drives Premier Automotive Group

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Premier Automotive Group believes good business is a means to good deeds.

The group, which has 21 dealerships in five states selling Nissan, Kia , Honda, Toyota and Chrysler Jeep Dodge vehicles, believes its main purpose for existing is to give back to the community in which its stores thrive.

"Our core value is profit with a purpose," Jim Evans, president and chief operating officer at Premier Automotive Group, told Edmunds.

A portion of the profit from each car sold by each individual dealership goes back to the local community, to the charity of that dealership's choice.

It adds up to $1 million per dealership, Evans said.

Each dealership employs a HOPE coordinator to work with the dealer's general manager to determine which charity should receive the donation. HOPE stands for "help other people every day."

In New Orleans, Premier has five dealerships and they operate a food pantry through its Giving HOPE Foundation that feeds hot meals to the community. It employs 16 full-time people six days a week and expects to serve 300,000 hot meals in 2015.

Premier's owner Troy Duhon also has plans to build six orphanages on six contents in six years. The first opened in 2014 in India. This year the effort will center on Honduras and in 2016, Ethiopia.

"This isn't to sell more cars," Evans explained. "We never want to cross that line to pander to people. Our goal is if we do something right, it comes back to us anyway. We are about helping those in need."

Edmunds says: A giving spirit drives this auto group, something that like-minded car shoppers will appreciate.