NEW ON THE BUSINESS SCENE: FORD GROVES MOTOR TAKING ON NEW LOOK IN JACKSON

Ford Groves Motor Co. is taking on a new look at Jackson.

Construction has started on a $300,000 showroom facility at the company's Jackson site, 825 E. Highway 61.

"The new, 5,000-square-foot building will include conference rooms, sales office, manager's office, a two-car showroom and two bays for reconditioning cars," said Bob Neff, general manager and a partner in the company.

The Jackson Ford Groves site opened in 1986.

"When we started in Jackson a decade ago, we were selling about 15 cars a month," Neff said. "Now, we selling fifty-plus every month."

Ford Groves Motor Co. is the oldest auto dealership in Cape Girardeau. The business was started in November 1914 when the late Frederick A. Groves incorporated the Ford Groves agency in downtown Cape Girardeau. In 1924 the agency moved to 41 N. Sprigg.

Ford Groves remained at the Sprigg Street address for more than six decades, from 1924 to 1989, before moving to its current site at 1501 N. Kingshighway.

The company has more than doubled its sales and revenues since then, said Neff, who assumed the manager's position here in 1987 after more than a dozen years in the auto sales industry, three of them at McMann Ford in St. Louis.