Rose City Ford sold to Edmonton-based AutoCanada Inc.
After nearly four decades of owning Rose City Ford, the Chisholm family is turning over the keys to the dealership to AutoCanada Inc. in a sale that will close next month.
“We are very excited to acquire our first Ford dealership, an acquisition that will advance our strategy of diversifying the brand and geographic mix in our portfolio of dealerships,” Paul Antony, executive chairman of AutoCanada, said in a statement.
“We would like to thank Rose City Ford and Ford of Canada for their confidence in AutoCanada and we look forward to building a strong partnership with Ford.” There isn’t expected to be any significant changes at the 65,000-square-foot dealership, which employs 65 people. John Chisholm, president of Rose City Ford, and his wife Sophia, who serves as treasurer, will remain with the dealership in new roles. The family retains ownership of the building and land the dealership sits on near the intersection of Tecumseh Road East and Jefferson Avenue. Chisholm’s father Bill purchased the dealership in 1981 when it was called Dingwall Ford and renamed it Rose City. The Ford dealership has been around since the mid1960s and has been consistently one of the automaker’s top sales performers.
Having spent a lifetime in the automotive industry, 85-year-old Bill Chisholm was also instrumental in setting up a 4,600-volume automotive collection in the new Windsor library branch on Ypres Avenue that opened in the fall and bears his name.
“We can’t wait to welcome the Rose City Ford team to AutoCanada and we look forward to continuing to build the Ford brand in Windsor with them,” said AutoCanada president Michael Rawluk. Rose City will become AutoCanada’s first Ford dealership. It’s also the first dealership Ford Motor Company has allowed to be owned by a publicly traded company. The Edmonton-based company is North America’s leading multilocation dealership group. The company has 69 dealerships, 27 brands and has 4,200 employees in eight provinces and the state of Illinois.
In 2017, AutoCanada sold 63,000 vehicle and generated over $3-billion in revenue from its dealerships.