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Text: As she said, I'm David Smith, the company's CEO.
Joining me on the call today is our President, Jeff Dyke; our CFO, Mr. Heath Byrd; our Executive VP of Operations, Mr. Tim Keen; and our Chief Digital Retail Officer, Mr. Steve Wittman; and our Vice President of Investor Relations, Mr. Danny Wieland.
We're very excited to announce another record-breaking quarter.
This performance would not have been possible without the amazing effort and execution by our Sonic and EchoPark teammates.
During the third quarter of 2021, Sonic delivered another quarter of record revenue and an 11th consecutive quarter of year-over-year earnings per share growth.
On a consolidated basis, we posted record third quarter revenues of $3.1 billion, up 21% and record third quarter gross profit of $472 million, up 25%, driven by strong performance across the board and new used fixed operations in F&I.
Going beyond our top line growth, our third quarter results continue to validate our permanent expense reductions, achieving record third quarter SG&A expense as a percentage of gross profit of just 68.1%.
On a Franchised Dealerships segment basis, though, SG&A as a percentage of gross profit was just 60.1%, a 760-basis point decrease year-over-year and down from 76.9% in the third quarter of 2019.
Turning to earnings, we reported record third quarter pre-tax income from continuing operations of $112 million, up 39% year-over-year and earnings from continuing operations of $85 million or $1.96 per diluted share.
Diving deeper into our core Franchised Dealerships segment, third quarter 2021 revenues were $2.4 billion compared to $2.2 billion in the prior year, which reflects the ongoing recovery in consumer demand we've seen since the high since pandemic.
On a same-store basis, Franchised Dealerships third quarter revenues were up 11% year-over-year, while gross profit improved by 27%, driven by a record new and used vehicle gross per unit, a 21% increase in customer pay fixed operations gross profit and all-time record Franchised segment F&I gross profit per retail unit, up $2,303, up 27% from the third quarter of 2020.
As a result of ongoing supply chain disruptions that limited new vehicle production and inventories, we believe that third quarter new vehicle unit sales volume was negatively impacted by the low supply of new vehicle inventory despite continued consumer demand.
Our Franchised Dealerships new vehicle inventory was approximately 2,400 units or just a 10-day supply down from nearly 13,000 new vehicles at this same time last year.
Comparatively, used vehicles inventory was in line with our target level of 27 days supplying or 8,200 units.
Turning now to our EchoPark business.
We reported all-time record quarterly revenues of $663 million, up 72% from the prior year and representing our fifth consecutive quarter of record EchoPark revenues.
We achieved record third quarter EchoPark retail sales volume of 21,255 units, up 41% year-over-year.
During the third quarter of 2021, EchoPark market share increased 110 basis points to approximately 4% of the one to four year-old vehicle segment in our current markets.
At the end of the quarter, EchoPark used vehicle inventory was approximately 9,800 units for a 41-day supply.
For the third quarter, we reported an EchoPark pre-tax loss of $32.9 million and adjusted EBITDA loss of $28.5 million.
This includes new market-related losses of $18 million and $16.8 million, respectively.
The effects of new vehicle inventory shortages have continued to drive used vehicle wholesale pricing higher, which negatively impacted EchoPark margins and profitability in the near term.
While we continue to strategically manage our pricing and volume amid this temporary disruption in the used market pricing environment, we remain very confident that EchoPark margins and profitability will rebound once these market conditions normalize, which we anticipate will occur in mid-2022.
Despite these short-term challenges, we continue to believe in the long-term potential of the EchoPark brand and remain very committed to growing our nationwide distribution network.
With our progress today, we remain confident in attaining our goals of 25% population coverage by the end of 2021 and 90% population coverage by 2025.
In addition, the launch of our proprietary digital retail platform at EchoPark continues to progress, and we remain on track to go live by the end of this year and roll out to our entire network in early 2022.
The addition of these key roles to our team reflects our continued focus on executing our long-term growth plans at EchoPark, and we are excited to see their expertise contribute to EchoPark's promising future.
Returning now to our franchise business.
We recently announced several strategic acquisitions to further accelerate our growth plans In September, we signed a definitive agreement to acquire RFJ Auto Partners, a top 15 U.S. dealer group by total revenues.
With 33 locations in seven states and a portfolio of 16 automotive brands, the transaction will add six incremental states to Sonic's geographic coverage and five additional brands to our portfolio, including the highest volume, Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM dealer in the world and Dave Smith Motors.
This acquisition, which is expected to close in December of this year, is projected to add $3.2 billion in annual revenues to the company, which are an incremental to Sonic's previous stated target of $25 billion in total revenues by 2025.
In addition to RFJ Auto during the third quarter, we announced the acquisition of Bobby Ford, Audi Subaru and Volkswagen franchises in Colorado, further enhancing our automotive sales and service network in that state.
More recently, we continued the expansion of our Franchised Dealerships network with the acquisition of Bobby Ford, Chrysler Dodge Jeep RAM in the Greater Houston market.
Turning now to our balance sheet.
We ended the third quarter with $618 million in available liquidity, including approximately $320 million in cash and 425 was on hand.
More recently in connection with our pending acquisition of RFJ Auto, we announced a significant upside to our credit facilities, increasing total capacity to $2.95 billion and completed an oversubscribed senior note offering with an aggregate principal amount of $1.15 billion, capitalizing on the favorable market conditions and an upgraded corporate credit rating to refinance our existing debt maturities at attractive terms with lower borrowing costs.
These transactions demonstrate the strength of our business and positive outlook for the future as we continue to expand our nationwide reach and maximize operating efficiencies across our operations.
With our improved balance sheet and additional liquidity resources, we believe Sonic is well positioned to pursue further growth opportunities in our Franchised Dealerships business, as well as to keep executing on our EchoPark growth plans.
Lastly, given our strong balance sheet, I'm pleased to report that our Board of Directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share, payable on January 14, 2022, to all stockholders of record as of December 15, 2021.
In summary, our quarterly results reflect Sonic's continued operating improvements despite industrywide challenges stemming from the pandemic.
These results demonstrate ongoing strong consumer demand, tremendous improvements in our Franchised Dealerships performance, our success in maximizing operating efficiencies throughout our operations and our teammates unwavering dedication to delivering for our guests.
Going forward, we will continue to execute on our strategic growth plans in both our Franchised Dealerships and EchoPark business segments, including the rollout of our new digital platform beginning this quarter.
We believe that by following this course, we will continue to achieve strong revenue growth, increased profitability and build long-term value for our shareholders.

user
q3 revenue rose 20.6 percent to $3.1 billion.
record q3 earnings from continuing operations of $84.7 million ($1.96 per diluted share).

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