Alaska Sales and Service Inc.

• Author: D'Oro, Rachel
• Position: Ranked 11 in the 1999 Top 49ers

1999 Top 49ers Ranking: 11 Position Last Year: 10 1998 Revenue: $109.6 million Numbers of Employees: 250

The owners of Alaska Sales and Service Inc. have three words to sum up the Anchorage dealership's 55 years of success: keeping customers happy.

"We take care of our customers," says company president Leonard Bryant. "We give them what they want."

"That means honesty and integrity and good service," adds general manager Diana Pfeiffer.

The company, owned by Bryant, Pfeiffer and three other Alaskans, must be doing something right. The huge General Motors dealership boasts multiple generations of loyal customers, including families in the Bush, who won't buy from anyone else. They know that the company will stand behind its products, even if it means replacing an occasional lemon, no questions asked.

Yearly revenues continually top $100 million. Last year, for example, revenues were $110 million; in 1997, they were $104.3 million.

Another secret to the dealership's success: one-stop shopping. Customers can choose from the full GM line, including Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, GMC, Pontiac and Oldsmobile, as well as commercial vehicles and used cars of all makes. The company provides leasing options on new cars and trucks, and its own financing on used vehicles.

Other services include an on-site service department, detailing shop, an auto accessory store, car rentals through National Car Rental.... And customer perks, like the dealership's annual "500 Sale," where sales staff cut good deals to sell as many cars as possible in 500 hours. Through the popular event alone, the dealership has sold a total of 33,718 vehicles over the past 35 years.

A gleaming, fully restored black 1923 Chevy Coupe sits high on a ledge in the dealership's vast showroom, reminding visitors that Alaska Sales and Service has been around almost as long.

The company, among the oldest existing dealers in the state, began in 1944 as a downtown Chevrolet franchise. A few years later, it moved to Third Avenue and E Street before the business moved east in 1965 to its present location at...