Growing Hudson Automotive Group this week expanded its South Carolina presence with the purchase of Dick Dyer Toyota in Columbia, the state's capital city.
The Charleston, S.C., group bought the dealership on Monday from retiring dealer Bruce Dyer, Hudson Automotive CEO David Hudson said in an email to Automotive News.
The dealership was renamed Midlands Toyota.
Chris Fitzgerald, Dick Dyer Toyota's general manager and an equity partner in the store, will remain in the same role with Hudson Automotive, said Hudson, who didn't specify Fitzgerald's ownership stake.
Hudson Automotive now has six dealerships in South Carolina and six Toyota stores, Hudson said. With Midlands Toyota, Hudson Automotive has 33 rooftops, including a used-vehicle store, across Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia and Ohio.
In June, the Hudson group entered Alabama with the purchase of Hoover Toyota. At the end of August, the group sold Murfreesboro Volkswagen in Tennessee to Victory Automotive Group, Hudson said. Victory Automotive of Canton, Mich., ranks No. 15 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 35,035 new vehicles in 2020.
Hudson Automotive has another acquisition pending. The group announced in July that it planned to buy three Mercedes-Benz dealerships from Peterson Automotive Collection in a deal set to close in mid-September.
The acquisition of Mercedes-Benz of Louisville in Kentucky and Mercedes-Benz of Cincinnati and Mercedes-Benz of West Chester, both in Ohio, is now expected to close this month, Hudson said.
Mike Sims, of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a buy-sell firm in Frisco, Texas, represented Dyer in the transaction with Hudson.
