BATON ROUGE — Geaux Automotive Group has acquired four former Hudson Automotive dealerships in the Baton Rouge area, the Baton Rouge Business Report reported. 

According to Lee Carney, CEO of Geaux Automotive Group, the deal closed Wednesday afternoon.

The company picked up the Volvo dealership and the pre-owned Super Center at the corner of Coursey Boulevard and Airline Highway in Baton Rouge, along with the Ford and Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram dealerships in Denham Springs. Hudson Automotive Group, based in South Carolina, sold the dealerships for an undisclosed price.

The acquisition adds 111 employees to the Geaux Automotive Group and grows the company's total dealership count to 12 across Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee. That includes seven in Louisiana, three in Mississippi and two in Tennessee, with a total workforce of 340 people.

Carney said the move felt personal, given his history with the locations, which previously operated under the ownership of Matt McKay's All Star Automotive Group. 

"I worked at All Star for 17 years for Matt [McKay] and ran some of his stores before I left and started my own thing in December of 2020," Carney said. "Those stores are like home to me since I worked at them for so long. It just so happens that Hudson called and asked if we wanted to buy some of them. It was a no-brainer for us to want to buy those stores."

Carney said the company plans to keep growing, but with a tighter geographic focus.

The acquisitions come after Hudson Automotive purchased the former All Star Automotive Group dealerships last year. Hudson reached an agreement to acquire those dealerships in August before completing the transactions in phases, including three Livingston Parish dealerships that sold for a combined $56.4 million and seven additional East Baton Rouge Parish properties totaling $81.5 million.