Hendrick Automotive Group has acquired Foreign Car Italia’s eight luxury import auto franchises in Charlotte and Greensboro, CBJ has learned.
The companies confirmed the sale July 1. Hickory-based Paramount Automotive Group sold Hendrick two dealership and franchise clusters: Foreign Cars Italia Charlotte and Foreign Cars Greensboro.
Foreign Cars Italia Charlotte, located on Tyvola Road at Interstate 77, includes Ferrari of Charlotte in one building and, next door, a second building housing Alfa Romeo of Charlotte, Aston Martin Charlotte, Bentley Charlotte and Maserati of Charlotte.
In Greensboro, Foreign Cars Italia has one location comprised of Ferrari of Greensboro, Maserati of Greensboro and Porsche Greensboro. Paramount Automotive opened the Greensboro site in 1993 and Charlotte followed in 2005.
Combined, the sites cover 15 acres, with 100,000 square feet of sales and office space and 130 employees. No major changes are expected at either location.
In an interview with CBJ, Hendrick Automotive Chairman and CEO Rick Hendrick, himself an avid car collector, said he has been a Ferrari customer for 30 years and has long wanted to sell Ferraris, too.
Hendrick tried to buy the Ferrari franchise here starting in the mid-1990s but couldn’t convince Paramount Automotive CEO Benny Yount to sell it.
“I couldn’t and then (Yount) called me (recently) and said he was ready (to sell) the other day,” Hendrick said. “I had been hounding him for a while. I love the cars and this gave us an opportunity — not only with Ferrari but with Bentley and Aston Martin, all those brands — to couple with our 31 franchises in Charlotte. It gives us, between Mercedes, BMW and Lexus, now with Bentley and the exotics, it fits our profile well for this market.”
Charlotte-based Hendrick Automotive Group, with sales of $14.5 billion last year, ranks as the nation’s largest privately owned dealership chain. The company’s headquarters are on Monroe Road.
In 2025, the company sold 213,000 cars and trucks at its 102 U.S. locations and serviced another 2.7 million vehicles. Rick Hendrick also owns a NASCAR team, with headquarters on the Cabarrus and Mecklenburg county lines, and an advanced manufacturing/technical solutions business.
Hendrick told CBJ that the automotive group has 6,000 employees in North Carolina. The NASCAR and manufacturing companies employ an additional 1,000 people in the Charlotte area.
The company plans to open a satellite Ferrari franchise in the Raleigh area within the next two years, Hendrick said.
Irvine, California-based Kerrigan Advisors represented Paramount Automotive in the sale to Hendrick Automotive. According to figures from Kerrigan, North and South Carolina are booming markets for luxury auto sales, bolstered by an increase of 60% in the number of millionaire tax filings since 2015 across the two states.
Yount, the Paramount Automotive CEO, said, “We have a lot of respect for the Hendrick organization and Rick Hendrick personally, (who is) a longtime customer and a good friend. We could not be more pleased to know that our luxury business will be shepherded by Hendrick Automotive Group going forward and are excited to see our franchises flourish with their leadership.”
Hendrick added, “For me, what we’ve been able to do in the Carolinas between Charleston, Charlotte, Raleigh and Wilmington, it’s been a big footprint for us. Again, with the (car) lines we have, it just adds from top to bottom, we represent everything in the automobile business.”
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Hendrick, who turns 77 next month, said his 50-year-old auto company will keep going as a family-driven business long after he’s gone. For now, he remains committed to maintaining a hands-on approach.
“We’re opening two new (franchises) up in Northlake with Range Rover and Acura and I just built the largest collision center I’ve ever built — a 100,000-square-foot collision center up there — so, we’re growing,” he said. “I think I want another 50 years (of selling cars). I won’t be here but everybody’s worked too hard to build this thing and we want it to go on.”
Two years ago, Hendrick brought on former Ally Financial Inc. CEO Jeffrey Brown as president of Hendrick Automotive.
Paramount Automotive will continue to own and operate dealerships and franchises in Asheville, Hickory and Valdese.
Holland & Knight’s Stephen Dietrich advised Paramount Automotive in the sale; Hendrick Automotive was represented by Brian Nolen and Eric Anderson of Nolen PLLC.
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 more than 445 franchises generating more than $10 billion in client proceeds, including two of the largest transactions in auto retail history – the sale of Jim Koons Automotive Companies to Asbury Automotive Group and Leith Automotive to Holman. 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 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®, the industry authority on dealership buy/sell market trends and valuations and 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 The Kerrigan Index™ comprised 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 access The Kerrigan Index™, click here. To read the 2025 Kerrigan Dealer Survey, click here. To read the 2025 Kerrigan OEM Survey, click here. Kerrigan Advisors also is the co-author of NADA’s Guide to Buying and Selling a Dealership.
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