Ancira Enterprises Named Largest Minority-Owned Business in San Antonio

Teamwork, like this, is an everyday occurrence at Ancira

The San Antonio Business Journal has named Ancira Enterprises, Inc., the largest San Antonio Minority-Owned Business, as ranked by 2009 local gross revenues.

Ancira Enterprises operates 11 automobile dealerships in San Antonio, Eagle Pass, Alvarado, Floresville and Boerne, Texas. It employs over 500 people. Its gross local revenues for 2009 were $375 million.

Listed in second, third, fourth and fifth places respectively are: The Alamo Travel Group, LP; Thos. S. Byrne Ltd. General Contractor/Construction; M2Technology, an IT solution provider; and Journeyman Construction.

April Ancira, Vice President of Ancira Auto Group, says the secret to the company’s success lies in top management’s ability to pick great employees and foster teamwork. It lies in the enthusiasm and hard work that everyone at Ancira puts into their jobs.

“We’ve been in business since 1972 and my Dad, Ernesto Ancira, Jr., has worked hard, set an example and surrounded himself with really good people. He has hired the right person to do each job.”

“People servicing other people -- that’s what business is all about,” says April. “He recruited the best to take care of our customers.”

“Finding good people is really tough,” she adds. “You need to find the ones that mirror your level of integrity and the way you want to take care of other folks. It’s probably the toughest job that any manager has and our entire management team at all 11 sites has done a really good job of it.”

Besides Ernesto and April, Ernesto’s brother Gilbert Ancira, Internet Director in Ancira’s Internet Department, is also a family member in the business.

The trio treat their staff like family. “We’ve stayed really family-oriented in that if there’s an issue, there’s not a lot of red tape you have to go through to resolve it. Management has an open door policy.”

“Our orientation at Ancira Auto is: Let’s take care of our customers, our employees and our community. It’s just the way we handle things from a family-owned business perspective. It’s a philosophy like that that has made my Dad so successful and the company successful.”