Press

Aug 15, 2008

"Parts Sales Help Make Northeast Great Dane Leading Trailer

">Awards cover the walls of the reception area of Northeast Great Dane's home office in Florida, New York, the result of being the most frequently honored dealership Great Dane Trailers has.

The company is recognized almost annually for selling more Great Dane trailers than any company its size. The company also wins awards for its parts sales, with its salesmen winning plaques as well. At its present pace, Northeast Great Dane will have to expand its reception area or find other places to hang plaques.

Through the years, the company has not relied on any single type of trailer to keep sales volume high. The company's Marathon, New York location won in 1987 after having an excellent year selling refrigerated trailers. Florida won in 1988 with a surge in platform sales. Dry freight vans were strong in 1989.

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Aug 15, 2008

"Fleet - Footed

">At Northeast Great Dane, parts delivery is carried out swiftly and efficiently by a fleet of quality trucks.

According to John Gendelman, branch manager of Northeast Great Dane in Florida, NY, the list of quality attributes that make up a good delivery truck is short. He says to see service in Northeast Great Dane's delivery fleet, a truck must boast low maintenance cost, a high level of serviceability and lots of driver comfort.

"Our company provides trailer and truck parts and services throughout the entire Northeast through five locations," John relates. The Florida branch is located about 40 miles north of New York City. The other branches are in Marathon, NY (below Syracuse), Lancaster, NY (outside Buffalo), Hartford, CT, and Peabody, MA (above Boston).

"Our corporate fleet consists of five tractors, seven trailers, three pickups and fourteen straight trucks, " continues John. "Our tractor-trailers are used for interbranch shipments and for delivering lengths of wood, aluminum rails and other large orders to customers. The straight trucks are assigned to the branch locations to provide all other parts deliveries to our customers directly."

The fleet of 14 straight trucks is an integral part of Northeast Great Dane's commitment to providing quality service to its customers. To that end, according to John, the company keeps an open mind when it comes to selecting delivery vehicles.

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Aug 15, 2008

"In the Spotlight: Great Dane Dealers of theYear Share Sec

">The annual Great Dane King Pin Awards program recognizes dealers who represent the very best of the best, organizations that excel in sales, service and parts performance. For 2008, the two Great Dane dealerships honored with Dealer of the Year Awards were Lions Gate Great Dane and Northeast Great Dane. Here are their stories:

HILLSBOROUGH, NEW JERSEY

Continuing a long-standing tradition of performance, in 2007 Northeast Great Dane again produced an outstanding record of trailer and parts sales that was second to none in its area of responsibility. A Great Dane dealer for 35 years, the company is one of the largest distributors of trailers in the U.S.

"Our team of 160 people is determined to offer the best products and services possible and to continually find ways to solve problems and create value for Great Dane and our customers, " says John Gendelman, Vice President. "Our success comes from many years of experience, wonderful, dedicated people, the amazing support we receive from Great Dane and a very loyal customer base. We're like the reverse of the perfect storm - all good things comeing together with Northeast Great Dane in the middle."

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Aug 15, 2008

"Evolving Trailer Technology

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Jun 18, 2008

"Trailers For Sale or Rent

">We have been a dealter for Great Dane for 33 years," says Tom Leuner, president of Northeast Great Dane. "We're one of the oldest. They're excellent people to work with and they're the class act in the industry."

In those 33 years, Northeast Great Dane has become a class act itself, developing into a one-stop shop for trailer operators' needs. Now based in Hillsborough, New Jersey, after a fire destroyed its first headquarters in Florida, New York in 1995, the company is ideally placed to serve the northeastern United States, roughly equidistant between the major industrial centers of Philadelphia and New York City.

The company has retained a repair shop in Florida, NY, 73 miles north of New York City in Orange County in the Catskills, and has another in Syracuse, New York. "We also have a full service facility in Hudson, MA, which is similar to what we have here, and another one in Lancaster, New York, which is a suburb of Bufalo," says Leuner. "If you break down in the northeast, you're in pretty easy reach of one of our facilities that can take care of your problem." They also offer road service in some of the locations to give more complete coverage.

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Jun 06, 2008

"March 2002 Article from Trailer/Bodybuilders

">Low profile, high service

LET'S SAY you are a very successful trailer dealer. Your parts department generates $20 million per year, despite its low-profile location far from most of your customers.

Let's then say that a fire destroys your shop, and your insurance company says you can rebuild anywhere you want.

What would you do?

Northeast Great Dane faced that scenario a few years ago. The company chose to move closer to the heart of the market, but in another low-profile facility.

President Tom Leuner decided his company did not need to be easily seen from an Interstate. But he did jump at the chance to relocate to the middle of his market.

So he moved his flagship location from Florida, New York, a town 70 miles northwest of New York City near the edge of the Catskill mountains. He chose to relocate in Hillsborough, New Jersey, in a facility that almost anyone can find if they have good directions and above-average determination. But making it easy for the customer to visit Northeast Great Dane is not a high priority.

"We aren't here to have the customer come to us," he says. "It's our job to go out and serve the customer."

Serving the customer is something Northeast Great Dane does well, as evidenced by the awards that fill the walls of this company. In addition to winning awards from Great Dane, Tom Leuner was named a finalist in last year's National Trailer Dealer of the Year award sponsored by CitiCapital and the National Trailer Dealers Association.

As its name communicates, Northeast Great Dane serves a major portion of the northeast. Along with its locations in Hillsborough and Florida, the company has branches in Hudson, Massachusetts, and Lancaster, New York, near Buffalo.

The relocation of its headquarters may be the most significant, but it is not the most recent. In 2000, the company bought and equipped a larger facility in Hudson and opened a small repair facility in Syracuse - all in a down market. The company also is shopping for a larger shop for the repair operation it opened in Syracuse.

"We are in a hotel there, and we are looking for a home," jokes John Gendelman, vice-president.

In Search of Service

Northeast Great Dane headquarters is very much at home in Hillsborough after moving from Florida, New York, several years ago.

Florida is substantially north of the center of Northeast Great Dane's market. The move to Hillsborough placed headquarters 45 miles southwest of New York City and 55 miles northeast of Philadelphia, or roughly halfway between two of the largest cities in the country. Florida is 73 miles north of New York City and 136 miles north of Philadelphia.

Management had been thinking about opening a branch somewhere in metropolitan New York City. With the loss of the shop in Florida, the search for a site began in earnest.

"Each building we looked at was a little better than the previous one," Leuner says.

The best of the batch - which Northeast Great Dane selected - is outside the town of Hillsborough in an agricultural area.

"We are near all these people, yet we are surrounded by cornfields," Leuner says. "That means our customers are easy for us to reach, and we have people with a strong work ethic close to us that we can attract as employees."

Making the Move

After an extensive search, Northeast Great Dane chose as its headquarters a building that formerly served as a government-owned battery testing facility. The structure had a series of 80-ft x 60-ft cells used for testing batteries, dimensions management considered well suited for use as trailer repair bays. Each holds five trailers.

While the building was well suited for Northeast Great Dane, the city fathers were not sure they wanted a business occupying the building that would attract truck traffic. They were unfamiliar with management's philosophy of reaching out to the customer instead of having trailer fleets come to them.

"We approached the Hillsborough city government with the attitude of 'what can we do,' instead of 'here is what the law says we have the right to do.' We approached them as partners, rather than adversaries, and we worked together to address their concerns."

Northeast Great Dane attracted some local residents to come to work for the company, and a number of loyal employees moved to the Hillsborough area from Florida. They included members of the purchasing department, sales, and company truck drivers.

Even though many of its employees followed the company to Hillsborough, Leuner says that the company decided to retain a presence in Florida in order to continue serving customers in that part of the state. To do so, Northeast Great Dane built a smaller, six-bay shop to replace the one that burned. The shop serves as a service facility and a parts depot. Plus, the spacious yard provides ample storage for used trailers.

Quick Recovery

While the ultimate solution to the fire was the result of lengthy planning, it did not take Northeast Great Dane long to get back to work - albeit in temporary quarters.

"We were at 80% of capacity within a week," Leuner says of the 1995 fire.

The fire started in the middle of the shop and spread both directions. When the smoke cleared, the shop was a total loss. But mechanics simply worked on trailers in the yard - at least those trailers that survived the fire.

The parts warehouse also was affected. Fortunately, Northeast Great Dane operates a fleet of parts delivery trucks that contained some inventory. Storage facilities were located to handle the rest.

Whole Lot of Parts

Northeast Great Dane is a f