Long-time community members Dan and Naomi Maisonneauve, general manager and manager partner respectively of Kicking Horse Ford, have announced their intent to retire at the end of the month.
Davis Auto Group will be assuming ownership of the dealership as of Oct. 1, as Dan Maisonneauve says they believe the Davis group shares their same values, something that was important to them in the sale of the dealership.
“We want the transition to be super, super smooth, with as little change possible,” said Maisonneauve. “The high priority is retaining everybody that’s here to maintain that continuity in the community, we know how important that is to a small town.”
The Davis family, who currently have automotive interests in both B.C. and Alberta, have said that it’s important for them to uphold the goodwill in the community built up over the years by the Maisonneauves.
“We’re a small town people, we grew up in Fort MacLeod, Alberta, which is a town of 3,000 people, So we really value the small town values. Golden is just overall a really nice fit for us,” explained Davis Auto Group representative Tim Davis.
“We’re here to build on what Dan and Naomi have built already. They’ve created an amazing foundation in an awesome vibrant little community and our goal is just to take that and see if we can take it to the next level.”
Davis says they’ve been looking for a while now for an opportunity to bring a Ford dealership under their corporate umbrella.
He believes Golden is the perfect opportunity, due to the size of the community and its proximity to the mountains, as the Davis family is full of avid outdoorsmen.
Davis added they strongly believe those who will be serving to the community should be living in the community, noting new dealership general manager Terry Pack will be moving to Golden.
In fact, Pack had previously tried to move to Golden four years ago when he first left Alberta, before settling in Castlegar.
“We’re really big on giving back. We like to give both our time and money, and from an operational standpoint, just being a good community partner,” Davis said.
News of the Maisonneauves’ retirement has been trickling through the community, with Davis saying hearing people rave about the couple shows they have big shoes to fill.
“Everybody that we’ve spoken to has raved about Dan and Naomi and the job they’ve done here,” said Davis.
“They’ve been so awesome for the community.”
