Charlotte, North Carolina - Carousel Capital announced today that it has successfully exited its investment in Joe Hudson's Collision Center ("JHCC" or “the Company”), one of the largest providers of automotive collision repair services in the Southeastern United States. TSG Consumer Partners ("TSG"), a San Francisco-based private equity firm focused exclusively on the branded consumer sector, will partner with the Company moving forward. Carousel Capital, JHCC's owner since 2014, will remain a minority investor in the company.
Founded in 1989 by Joe Hudson in Montgomery, Alabama, Joe Hudson's Collision Center operates 110 locations throughout nine states today. During its partnership with Carousel Capital, the Company increased its store count from 23 to approximately 110 through acquisitions and new store development, expanded from 3 to 9 states and developed strategically important insurance relationships across the key auto insurers in the U.S.
“Carousel Capital has been a true partner since we recapitalized our business in late 2014. Carousel’s long track record of enhancing strategically important companies was attractive to us which gave us the confidence to execute such an ambitious plan for growth. The team at Carousel has not only provided the capital we needed to achieve our strategic growth plan, but they have also provided strategic insight as we have expanded our location count and geographic footprint. It has been a great relationship that has produced tremendous results," said Traweek Dickson, CEO of JHCC.
Jason Schmidly, Managing Partner of Carousel Capital, said, “We want to thank Traweek and the Joe Hudson’s team for our outstanding partnership. We’ve absolutely loved working with them as they have achieved so much success. They are great people running a great business. The Company’s culture of commitment to high quality operations was the key and everyone on the team shared it. We are confident that the company has a bright future ahead and are pleased to have the opportunity to remain a part of its future success.”
“We knew from the beginning that JHCC was a special Company in this industry and while there have been a number of high growth success stories in collision repair, few have done it while making their insurance partners and ultimate customers so satisfied with the industry leading cycle times they consistently deliver. What the team at JHCC accomplished is extremely difficult and we applaud their success,” said Peter Clark, Partner of Carousel Capital.
In addition to Joe Hudson’s Collision Center, Carousel's established track record of partnering with companies in the automotive aftermarket service industry includes investments in Meineke, Maaco, Driven Brands, and Express Oil Change/Tire Engineers. Similar to its continued investment in Joe Hudson's Collision Center, Carousel holds continuing interests in Mavis Discount Tire/Express Oil Change.
K&L Gates acted as legal advisor and Harris Williams acted as financial advisor to Carousel Capital and JHCC. Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisor to TSG.
