Group 1 said the new Kia store is expected to generate $85 million in annual revenue. The auto retailer also divested a Ford dealership near New Orleans.
Group 1 Automotive's acquisitive year continued with the June 1 purchase of Beck & Masten Kia in Tomball, Texas, a few weeks after the Houston company bought three—high-volume Buick-GMC stores in Texas, all owned by retiring John Beck and James Masten.
The auto retailer now has purchased dealerships that are expected to add about $1 billion in revenues this year, with the Houston-area Kia store, which will retain its name, projected to bring in $85 million.
"Kia is a new brand for our Houston platform," Group 1 CEO Daryl Kenningham said in a statement. "Kia America experienced the best first-quarter sales performance in the company's history and Houston is the second-fastest growing major metropolitan area in the U.S."
Interest in Kia stores—is rising across the country, according to Ryan Kerrigan, managing director of Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev.
"That franchise has had a really good run of product, of profitability," Kerrigan told—Automotive News. "The largest dealership groups and the publics like Group 1 are looking to grow their relationship with Kia."
Kerrigan said his firm, which represented Beck and Masten in both sales, continues to see outsized interest in "business-friendly, growing markets such as Texas," which translates into "significant premiums" paid for those dealerships.
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Kerrigan Advisors is the leading sell-side advisor and thought partner to auto dealers nationwide. Since its founding in 2014, the firm has led the industry with the sale of over 450 franchises generating more than $11 billion in client proceeds, including three of the largest transactions in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group, Leith Automotive to Holman, and Hennessy Automotive Companies to Group 1 Automotive (planned and expected to close in Q4 2026). The firm advises the industry’s leading dealership groups, enhancing value through the lifecycle of growing, operating and, when the time is right, selling their businesses. Led by a team of veteran industry experts with backgrounds in investment banking, private equity, accounting, finance and real estate, Kerrigan Advisors is the only firm in auto retail exclusively dedicated to sell-side advisory, providing its clients with the assurance of a conflict-free approach.
Kerrigan Advisors monitors conditions in the buy/sell market and publishes an in-depth analysis each quarter in The Blue Sky Report®, which includes Kerrigan Advisors’ signature blue sky charts, multiples and analysis for each franchise in the luxury and non-luxury segments. To download a preview of the report, click here. The firm also releases monthly The Kerrigan Index™ composed of the seven publicly traded auto retail companies with operations focused on the US market. The Kerrigan Auto Retail Index is designed to track dealership valuation trends, while also providing key insights into factors influencing auto retail. To read the 2025 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2026 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors is also the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership. Additionally, Kerrigan Advisors publishes a podcast, Beyond Blue Sky – A Kerrigan Conversation, where Kerrigan Advisors’ clients and industry leaders share the mindset, strategy and personal stories behind a once-in-a-generation transaction.
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