Motorsports and automotive retail giant Rick Hendrick’s dealership group on June 30 purchased three exotic- and luxury-brand stores in North Carolina, including two Ferrari dealerships.
The deal gives Hendrick Automotive Group its first Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley and Maserati franchises and a third Porsche franchise.
Hendrick Automotive bought Foreign Cars Italia Charlotte and Foreign Cars Italia Greensboro from Paramount Automotive Group, owned by Benny Yount. The Greensboro store sells Ferrari, Maserati and Porsche, and the Charlotte location has Ferrari in one building, with Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Bentley and Maserati in a facility next door.
“To be able to pull these brands into our family is exciting for me,” Rick Hendrick told Automotive News.
Hendrick said he plans a new facility for Ferrari in Charlotte and a new Porsche store in Greensboro. He also said he’ll add a “satellite operation” for Ferrari in Raleigh, N.C.
“We should be able to cover Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina,” Hendrick said.
Hendrick Automotive, of Charlotte, N.C., is the largest privately held group, ranking No. 7 on Automotive News’ list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 115,037 new vehicles in 2025.
Hendrick Automotive plans to keep the stores’ 130 employees. The purchase price was undisclosed.
Yount bought the Greensboro store in 1993 and opened the Charlotte location in 2005. Paramount Automotive’s website lists other stores selling Kia, Volvo, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Genesis and Ford in Hickory and Valdese, N.C.
Hendrick said he has known Yount for years and tried to buy a Foreign Cars Italia store 30 years ago, but the price wasn’t right.
“My CFO at the time said, ‘You know what, let’s just buy you one [Ferrari] every year and don’t buy the dealership,’” Hendrick said lightheartedly.
Kerrigan Advisors, a sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev., advised Yount in the deal and said he felt it was time to find the next owner for the marquis brands.
“Having had a relationship with Mr. Hendrick as a customer for many years, it made a lot of sense for him to pass the baton, if you will, to a legacy in the car business,” said Erin Kerrigan, the firm’s managing director.
Hendrick was attracted not only by the brands but by Yount’s operating style.
“He and his team have earned a reputation as one of the premier luxury automotive retailers in the country and fostered the kind of people-first culture that we value,” Hendrick said in a news release.
Hendrick said the market for used ultraluxury cars is especially robust.
“For some reason, there’s just so much interest in the exotic market right now ... and I hope it stays there,” Hendrick said.
He also has a positive outlook for taking orders for Ferrari’s Luce EV based on feedback from dealer friends. The four-door sedan has elicited criticism on social media for its styling.
Hendrick Automotive’s most recent purchase was in July 2025 when the group bought Chevrolet and GMC stores in Columbia, S.C.
Meanwhile, his group is prepared to launch Acura and Land Rover stores in the next 30 days. Hendrick Automotive received those stores as open points from the manufacturers.
Regarding the opportunity to buy more exotic-brand stores, Hendrick said: “You don’t see many of these stores come available because they stay in families for years, easily years to come, and so we’re always on the hunt.”
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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