Asbury Automotive Group, Inc, one of the largest automotive retail and service companies in the U.S., is announcing an initiative to hire between 200 and 400 technicians over the next twelve to twenty-four months to meet potential growth opportunities in our parts and service business. We expect to have opportunities to expand both our quick service offerings as well as our traditional service offerings across all of our stores and collision centers to better serve the needs of our customers.

We intend to pursue these candidates through our working partnerships with local technical schools, community colleges, our vehicle manufacturer partners and the Asbury Technical Institute ("ATI"). With the graduation of its first class in September 2014, ATI is an internal training program where eligible technician candidates, including current employees, receive classroom and hands-on training to become qualified technicians. We plan to employ these graduates in our stores in the markets we serve.

We are excited about this initiative and continue to anticipate our parts and service gross profit growth rate percentage to be in the mid-single digits range for 2015.