VICTORIAN dealer company HFH Auto Group this week took over Berwick Mazda after purchasing the stand-alone dealership from long-standing owner Grant Handley.

It is the first Mazda franchise for HFH and becomes the group’s ninth dealership.

Mr Handley opened Berwick Mazda in 2005 after moving the business from Dandenong where it had been operating for 30 years.

HFH said it would retain Berwick Mazda on the same site and keep the existing staff. It has appointed Con Kafetzis, as dealer principal. He has moved from his role as general manager of HFH’s Lexus of Berwick.

This is the third major dealership purchase by HFH this year. In February it bought Toyota dealerships in Frankston and Cranbourne and Peninsula Skoda from Michael Beamish’s Driveco Group.

The two outlets add to HFH’s Toyota dealerships in Berwick and Pakenham.

In 2019, HFH, led by Sam Freer and Jonathon Hardwick, sold seven dealerships in Tasmania, including Launceston Toyota.

HFH Auto Group is run by Mr Freer and Mr Hardwick, with the second “H” in the company name attributed to Geoff Harris, the popular car dealer who died in April 2018.

Mr Harris and Sam’s father Ross Freer teamed up in 1996 and bought a Toyota dealership in Berwick that remains in the HFH group.

The Freer and Harris partnership built Pakenham Toyota in 2010, three years after Sam Freer and Jonathon Hardwick joined the company.

In 2010 it also bought Launceston Toyota and Audi, subsequently sold to Sam Nixon’s Local Motor Group.

In 2013, the group bought Berwick Volkswagen and David Nutter Ford (renamed Berwick Ford), and two years later opened Berwick Jaguar Land Rover and formed the HFH Auto Group (Harris Freer Hardwick).

HFH now owns and operates Berwick Toyota, Berwick Ford, Berwick Jaguar Land Rover, Berwick Volkswagen, Berwick Mazda, Peninsula Skoda, Pakenham Toyota, Frankston Toyota and Cranbourne Toyota.

Its former Tasmanian car interests included Launceston Toyota, Audi, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Jeep, Honda and BMW.

By Neil Dowling