Dealerships and distribution rights

Business models

Protected territories granted by a manufacturer. The literature is very thin and almost entirely indirect: cars and beer are where the model has been written about at all.

9 books

Start here

  1. Car Guys vs. Bean CountersBob Lutz, 2011
  2. Bitter BrewWilliam Knoedelseder, 2012
  3. My Years with General MotorsAlfred P. Sloan Jr., 1963

Books 9

My Years with General Motors
T1 My Years with General Motors
Alfred P. Sloan Jr. · 1963 · Insider account of building the franchised dealer network and its financing.
Open Library
Mohnish PabraiPatrick CollisonBen Horowitz
The Reckoning
T1 The Reckoning
David Halberstam · 1986 · Ford and Nissan, including the dealer networks that carried them.
Open Library
Dethroning the King
T2 Dethroning the King
Julie MacIntosh · 2010 · Anheuser-Busch: how protected distribution rights shaped the takeover.
Open Library
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
T3 Car Guys vs. Bean Counters
Bob Lutz · 2011 · A GM insider on the franchise dealer channel and its incentives.
Open Library
Mohnish Pabrai
Bitter Brew
T3 Bitter Brew
William Knoedelseder · 2012 · The Busch family and the three-tier wholesaler system.
Open Library
Les Schwab: Pride in Performance
T4 Les Schwab: Pride in Performance
Les Schwab · 1986 · Tire-shop founder's memoir on profit sharing and dealer economics
Open Library
Charlie Munger
Marketing Channels
T4 Marketing Channels
Anne T. Coughlan, Erin Anderson, Louis W. Stern, Adel El-Ansary · 2001 · The academic text on channel design, territories and exclusive rights.
Open Library
The Distribution Trap
T4 The Distribution Trap
Andrew R. Thomas, Timothy J. Wilkinson · 2010 · The case against surrendering the channel to big retail.
Open Library
Beer Money
T4 Beer Money
Frances Stroh · 2016 · Family memoir of a brewer undone partly by its distribution position.
Open Library