DALTON, Ga. — Employees and local officials gathered at Ford of Dalton at 925 Shugart Road on Tuesday for a grand opening ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The site had been the home of Brooker Ford since 2007. Brooker Ford had its roots in Brooker Motor Co., which opened in Dalton in the early 1960s. Allen Brooker and Bob Brooker sold the dealership to Jason Denson and Tommy Thompson earlier this year. Denson had previously worked for Brooker’s commercial division.

“In a lot of ways, with Jason’s success, I am going to feel vicariously like it is part of my own success,” Allen Brooker said in an interview earlier this year. “I have trained and mentored him a lot over the past 20-something years. He is his own man and very smart and very savvy and has his own ideas, and I have no doubt that he will be a success.”

Denson said they have been ramping up inventory.

“In our area, we sell a lot of sedans and small SUVs and especially pickup trucks,” he said. “A lot of families buy a full-size pickup truck for their family vehicle.”

According to CNN, the Ford F-150 has been the best-selling pickup truck in the United States for the past 40 years, and the best-selling American vehicle of any type for almost as long.

“We are the only Ford dealership in our area, including Chattanooga, that has had a year-over-year sales increase,” Denson said. “We are proud of our team.”

Dalton Mayor Dennis Mock said he was happy to see the Ford dealership continue under the new owners.

“These are local folks doing business in our community and doing it really well,” he said.

Whitfield County Board of Commissioners member Barry Robbins said he was excited to see so many people turn out for the grand opening.

“It’s important to have a business in the community that we can support,” he said. “I think it’s particularly important to have dealerships such as this in our community, so our residents don’t have to go elsewhere to buy their cars and trucks.”