Larry H. Miller

Larry H. Miller (April 26, 1944 – February 20, 2009) was an American businessman. He owned the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Utah Jazz and the Salt Lake Bees, a minor league baseball team. Miller and his companies, now known as the Larry H. Miller Company, also owned more than 60 automotive dealerships throughout the western United States, and a variety of other ventures, including Prestige Financial Services, Jordan Commons (a restaurant and entertainment complex), Megaplex Theatres, KJZZ-TV, Miller Motorsports Park, the advertising agency Saxton Horne, and the Delta Center. The Fanzz chain of sports apparel stores was also owned by LHM Group until its sale to Ames Watson Capital in 2018.

Miller was born as Lawrence Horne West to Mary Lorille Horne and Howard Hanley West. His parents divorced in 1946, and in June 1948, his mother married Frank Soren Miller. Larry was legally adopted by his stepfather in September 1949, and his surname was changed to Miller. He did not meet his biological father again until he was middle-aged.

Miller earned poor grades in school but was also a National Merit Scholar. Miller graduated from West High School in Salt Lake City. He spent six weeks attending college.

Miller was employed in construction by his uncle, Reid Horne, on and off until 1964, when he and all the workers were laid off due to a lack of business. That same year, he spent the summer working for Aaron’s Coverall and Towel Service as a truck driver. Later in 1964, he went to work for American Auto Parts. He started at $1.10 per hour and worked stocking shelves, making deliveries, and cleaning.

After leaving American Auto Parts, Miller found a job, via a newspaper ad, at a car dealership, Bountiful Motors, working in the parts department. He started at $300 for the first month with a promise of a raise to $350 for further months. After Bountiful Motors failed to keep its promise, Miller accepted a chance job offer from a customer. His new employer was Paint and Piston, a body shop, where he earned $425 per month. He worked there for a year, but then moved to Gresh and Jerry's Chevron gas station where he earned $450 doing mechanical work, pumping gas, and managing the parts inventory. In part due to the gas station's failure to honor its agreement with respect to working hours, Miller moved on to Peck and Shaw GMC-Toyota, a car dealer. The dealership wanted to establish separate parts departments for GMC and Toyota, with Miller choosing to lead the Toyota department.

Miller moved on to work for Main Motors, a dealer of snowmobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and trailers as manager of the parts department. He was initially paid $650 per month and promised additional pay equal to 10% of his department's profits. Even after turning the department around and coming across a financial statement proving that it was profitable, his employer refused to honor their agreement. The overall business was doing poorly and staff cuts were made, creating a great deal of stress. Miller quit immediately after a confrontation over these issues with the owner. Miller reconciled with Main Motors after taking, but not starting, a position at Burt Chevrolet-Toyota in Englewood, Colorado.

After more broken promises, Miller left Main Motors for good in 1970 and went to work with Burt as their Toyota parts manager. After further conflict over compensation and other issues Miller left after giving two-weeks notice. Mistreatment by his employers made Miller realize that treating workers well could be a key competitive advantage.

Miller had a much more positive experience at Chuck Stevinson Toyota in Lakewood, Colorado. In 1971, he was hired to turnaround their parts department. By his second year on the job, it had the highest parts sales of any Toyota dealership in the United States. Miller achieved this by building a national wholesale business instead of just focusing on the local market. Miller took advantage of the demand for locking gas caps during the energy crisis by buying the entire wholesale stock of such caps, which were only made by two companies. In 1973, Gene Osborne, part owner of the dealership, offered Miller a promotion to general manager. This promotion did not take effect until 1974 due to the oil embargo of the same year. In 1977, Miller was appointed the operations manager for all five of Stevinson's Toyota locations. Miller was eventually demoted to head one of the locations in order to make room for Stevinson's sons, with Miller asked to mentor them. Miller's work with Stevinson gave him national recognition among Toyota dealers and repair shops.