As soon as the appropriate paperwork makes the rounds and is signed, Big Sky Ford, after 21 years as a single point, family dealership, will change its name to Transwest Ford and become the newest addition to the Transwest Incorporated’s family of vehicle
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TORRINGTON — It’s hard to say goodbye. Just ask Martin Gubbels, owner and general manager of Big Sky Ford. As soon as the appropriate paperwork makes the rounds and is signed, Big Sky Ford, after 21 years as a single point, family dealership, will change its name to Transwest Ford and become the newest addition to the Transwest Incorporated’s family of vehicle and truck dealerships. The company’s headquarters are in Brighton, Colo., but it has other facilities located in Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.
“It has not been easy for a dealer of my size to compete in todays market,” Gubbels said. “Ford frowns on single point, small market, family owned dealers. They haven’t set out to hurt me but they’re not necessarily out to help me either.
“So when Transwest contacted me and said they were interested in keeping the dealership in Torrington, I knew it was time. The one thing that was really important to me was for Torrington not to lose its only remaining new car dealership.”
Al Meloni, the new general manager at Transwest Ford, said with the addition of Big Sky Ford, Transwest will know have five car dealerships, to go along with commercial dealerships that include Freightliner, Western Star, AutoCar and Isuzu, not to mention the lines of commercial and horse trailers in which the company also deals.
“Transwest core DNA is commercial,” explained Meloni. “But we’ve been actively acquiring (consumer) stores for the last few years and the addition of Big Sky Ford rounds out our domestic lines of cars.”
He went on to explain that Transwest already has initiated a few changes for the Torrington dealership, but the changes do not include laying off employees, some who have been with Big Sky Ford since the doors opened.