Business & Tech

Cherokee Ford Opens New Dealership on Mansell

Vernon Krause bought the Roswell-bordering facility in the midst of the economic collapse.

 owner Vernon Krause celebrated the grand opening of the Mansell Road dealership with a ribbon cutting Thursday night, bringing out Roswell and Alpharetta business people, politicians and Ford executives.

"It wasn't long ago when we all saw General Motors go bankrupt, Chrysler go bankrupt and it was a tough time, a tough time for everybody," Krause said.

Other car manufacturers were bailed out by the federal government, but Ford went to the bank for help, and is now paying off those loans.

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"Not a week goes by when somebody doesn't come in an mention and say 'The reason that we're here is that you all didn't take the money'," he said. "Thank you Ford for that."

Mark Fields, executive vice president of Ford Motor Co. and president of North and South America, spoke about the commitment Krause made to Ford and his dealerships.

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"In the environment we're in right now, to come and to help Vernon open up a brand new dealership, I think says a tremendous amount around not only Vernon's commitment to Ford but all the employees that have made this come to pass today," Fields said "As I call it, he's all in on Ford. He's got five stores in three states."

Fields said the last time he was in Alpharetta was a month or two after Krause bought the dealership, in August 2009.

"Now think about it.  August 2009. We were still working through the Lehman collapse, the economy was...in really bad shape. And Vernon said I'm going to go all in, I'm going to double down. I have my faith in Ford, I have my faith in this community."

Fields said he remembers Kraus had a vision of what he wanted the dealership to be.

"He's turned that vision into reality," Fields said.

Krause attributed that success to the help he's had from his team.

"We have just a really good management team and that allowed me to spend most of my time with the architect, the engineers, builders," Krause said.

"We're thrilled. We think it's a really beautiful building," he said.

Krause said he started with a Ford store in Canton in 1991. In 1994, they built a new facility in Woodstock and moved there. Dan Parks joined the company then as general manager. Together they bought a dealership in the Charlotte area, later one in Asheville, NC and then a third dealership in Anderson, SC. Parks manages all three. Rick Folds is a partner in the Woodstock operation.


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