Page 63 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2016

Surprisingly, Ray Brandt was not always in the automotive industry. His career initially began as a CPA, balancing the accounts of business owners in a variety of markets. “The turning point in my career came when I purchased my first car dealership from one of the men whose books I had been responsible for,” he recalls. “I owe my success to my tireless efforts and those of my team.”
Another one of his mottos is that “the only time ‘success’ comes before ‘work’ is in the dictionary,” a quote from Harvey Specter, a character from the show Suits.
Today, Ray Brandt operates 11 dealerships throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as 5 collision centers. His dealerships offer a variety of brands, including Chrysler, Dodge, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jeep, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Ram, Scion, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
From his career as a CPA to now, Brandt has truly become a jack-of-all-trades within the automotive industry. His two D’Iberville locations, Mercedes-Benz of South Mississippi and the adjacent Volkswagen
TOP LEFT: The showroom
at the new Mercedes-Benz building in D’Iberville. ABOVE: The Mercedes-Benz of South Mississippi building during the construction phase.
LEFT: The Mercedes-Benz
Best of the Best Dealer Recognition Award for 2015.
dealership, have been successful and have been great additions to the ever-growing Promenade area.
For Brandt, the goal of the dealerships has always been customer experience, first and foremost. “We don’t want to just sell the customer this car, but every car in their lifetime,” he said. “Service after the sale is very important to us.”
His dedication to customer service is evident in his recent receipt of the Mercedes-Benz Best of the Best Dealer Recognition Award. This prestigious annual award recognizes only the top 15 percent of the Mercedes-Benz USA retail network, and is presented to the top performing dealerships based on their customer satisfaction, vehicle sales, leadership and management, and service and parts operation ratings.
11619 Bobby Eleuterius Blvd., D’Iberville, MS 228.265.9185 • www.MBofSM.com
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August 2016 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 63