Morgan Automotive poised to grow again

Morgan Automotive Group, already one of the largest dealership groups in the country, is primed to grow again via acquisitions in the first quarter of 2023, CEO Brett Morgan said.

"We've got some stuff under contract," Morgan told Automotive News on the sidelines of the NADA Show on Friday. "We'll see a handful of acquisitions I think here shortly out of us. We've got a couple other things that we're nibbling on as well. I think it would be realistic that we could have five or six acquisitions under our belt in Q1, which would be great."

Morgan said he couldn't provide details of the acquisitions, but said they represent five or six dealerships in total.

Morgan Automotive, of Tampa, Fla., was an active dealership buyer in 2022 with 10 stores purchased. Its most recent acquisition was in December, when it bought two Kia dealerships from LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. Morgan Automotive also sold one dealership last year.

The group has 61 dealerships, all in Florida. But Morgan said there have been discussions about going beyond Florida, and he pointed to Texas and Arizona as possibilities.

Still, Morgan said, there is room for his group to get even bigger in Florida.

"There's plenty of opportunity in Florida for us to continue to grow," he said. "There's plenty of markets like South Florida [and] Orlando, where we have a limited presence and we'd like to have more."

Morgan Automotive Group ranks No. 8 on the Automotive News list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 60,951 new vehicles in 2021.