The Ford dealership at the Mt. Orab Auto Mall is open for business.
The doors opened on the new facility on October 3, with a long row of Ford Trucks facing drivers on State Route 32.
“Phase two is complete. It’s been a lot of work getting it going and we still have some work ahead of us, but we sold our first car already, so we are off and running,” said General Manager Mike Carmichael on the first day of business.
He added that the two dealerships now employ 55 people between them.
“We’ve had to hire 18 people in the past six weeks between the two stores. Everything has been going very well,” Carmichael said.
The number of cars at the dealerships is also growing.
“Our inventory has expanded. Right now, I have about 150 Fords, 120 Chrysler and about 80 used cars on the lot,” Carmichael said.
He added that 320 more vehicles were in the pipeline.
“Our goal is to ramp up and have about 650 vehicles on the lot at all times,” Carmichael said.
“If you have a larger selection, you don’t have to spend time locating something for a customer or trying to order something that will take a while to get in. It just means that customers can get what they are looking for sooner.”
In the month or so that the Chrysler dealership has been open, things are much busier, according to Carmichael.
“We had a huge uptick in sales and service when we moved here from Peebles.”
He added that he expects that growth to continue.
“With the Ford store being open, it doesn’t look like we are in a construction zone anymore. I think some people avoided coming in because of the all the work going on,” Carmichael said.
Regarding future growth at the site, Carmichael said “There are manufactures we are talking to that want to make sure we can succeed out here before they move forward.”
Carmichael also thanked the people of Brown County for the warm welcome that the auto mall has received.
“We heard a lot of positive comments when we were down at the fair. Brown County continues to embrace us and it was great to be a part of the fair,” Carmichael said.
An official ribbon cutting ceremony for both dealerships is still in the works. Carmichael said a date for that event would be announced soon.