New West Truck Centres - Celebrating 15 Years

NEW WEST

TRUCK CENTRES

RIGGED AND READY FOR THE NEXT 15

BY RENNAY CRAATS

Every kid loves a big truck, but very few get to grow up and work with them every day. Greg Stahl learned about trucks – and business – on his father’s shop floor in Edmonton and after college his love for trucks took him throughout the United States working with huge players in the industry including Cummins, Freightliner and Detroit Diesel. Then he returned to Alberta and entered the market here with the acquisition of the Southern Alberta Freightliner dealers Calgary Freightliner and Lethbridge Freightliner in 2008.

Stahl was eager to build the business and envisioned the limitless range of his new enterprise. As he introduced his company, renamed New West Truck Centres, to the market, he set out to put together an incredible team to help him soar in the booming economy. But as is all too common in Alberta, that boom turned bust not long after Stahl took over.

“I picked a hell of a time to buy a truck dealer: oil was at $145 a barrel and then it tanked to $28 a barrel less than six months later. We were in a facility that we had already outgrown and our customer base was fairly impatient about the service levels we were able to give out of a smaller facility,” says Greg Stahl, owner and CEO of New West Truck Centres (NWTC).

Despite the challenges, Stahl hunkered down and used the first two years to fix the things that were broken, bring people on board to create the kind of management team that he wanted, and then build onto that strong foundation to make NWTC a force in the industry.

Photo by Riverwood Photography

CONGRATULATIONS

New West Truck Centres on 15 years of business relation!

It is a remarkable milestone that speaks volumes about our commitment to maintaining long-term partnerships and our ability to navigate the ups and downs of the business world. Our dedication to building strong relationships and providing excellent service has undoubtedly been a key factor in our success together. It has been an honor to work with New West Freightliner and to be a part of the journey over the past 15 years.

New West Freightliner’s unwavering commitment to forging strong and lasting relationships with customers and suppliers alike has resulted in a culture, where everyone at the company considers us as their valued friend and partner.

We look forward to many more years of collaboration and growth together.

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“The survive mode was the first few years trying to scrape by, and then we had a drive phase where we started to actually measure things like metrics and key indicators about whether or not we were proficient, and now it’s the thrive phase,” he says.

And the company is definitely thriving. Stahl nurtured it from the start, adding fertilizer and water so he could reap the harvest down the road as the company grew.

“Greg has reinvested everything back into the company,” says Adam Asplund, president of New West Truck Centres. “He has been willing to take risks so we were able to grow segments that never would have grown. Not everybody would have been that aggressive in those start up days.”

He was equally aggressive with building the reputation of the company. The team got to know the customer base well and implemented ways to better meet their needs, all the while broadening the company’s scope and reach. After five years in the business, New West joined the Elite Support program and five of its current locations are certified with that program with plans to have all eight on board this year. Daimler Trucks North America’s collaborative program focuses on improving the customer experience at dealerships by delivering fast diagnostics, rapid turnaround and effective communication. With 330 dealerships under the Elite Support umbrella, New West’s clients benefit from that network of professionals across the U.S. and Canada.

Now after 15 years in the market, New West Truck Centres and its unparalleled leadership team have earned a stellar reputation for their commitment to quality and service and NWTC has become a trusted leader in the industry.

Photo by Riverwood Photography

Greg Stahl, owner and CEO with Adam Asplund, president.

BUILDING STRONG LEADERSHIP

Stahl knew he needed to surround himself with the best people to be successful. Since day one, he’s relied on his vice president of sales, Bryan Hutchinson, to help him build the company. Then the addition of Adam Asplund, who is now New West Truck Centre’s president, nine years ago really set in motion the changes that needed to occur to get where they wanted to go.

“Adam was the catalyst for inspiring amazing growth within the company and building a cohesive senior team,” says Stahl.

The leadership team is rounded out by vice president Manny Sidhu, director of Parts Dean Pavlik, chief financial officer Dave Aikenhead and director of Corporate Services Bronaugh Curley. This collaborative group represents a merger of complementary skillsets to create an effective team that’s perfectly aligned with the company’s mission and culture. The norm is to promote from within to fill managerial and ultimately executive leadership positions whenever possible, so everyone in the room believes in the vision completely and is dedicated to bringing that vision to life.

“The nice thing about promoting these people internally to leadership positions is we know they are part of the culture, and we know that we’re not bringing someone in who is going to change that culture or who doesn’t fit. It’s so important,” says Dean Pavlik.

It is no surprise that most of the senior leadership team also worked their way up in the company and are proof that hard work, drive and a great attitude pays off. While the

Photo by Riverwood Photography

majority of the senior team has been with New West for more than five years, Dave Aikenhead is coming up on his one-year anniversary as CFO and is the rare example around the table of an outside hire. He fit in well from the start and he felt the difference between New West and previous employers right away.

“When I met with Adam and Greg and the rest of the leadership team, I felt that I was coming to a place where my opinions would be valued and that I would be part of the strategy,” Aikenhead says. “In finance sometimes you get shuffled off to the side and told ‘you deal with the dollars, we’ll do the rest.’ I didn’t get that sense from them. I’ve worked for 10 organizations and it’s not that common.”

That’s fitting, as New West is anything but common. The leadership team is driven to succeed and grow the company in a thoughtful, caring way that elevates people over profit. The past 15 years are the proof that this philosophy is a successful one.

TAKING P.R.I.D.E. IN THE BUSINESS

The entire team at NWTC has been carefully curated to ensure the positive, collaborative culture Stahl envisioned when he started is embraced and protected. The values of the company inform everything employees do every day, and a “we not me” attitude is something that is preached from the top down. In the early days, Stahl did the hard work of digging into exactly what he wanted from the company and how he wanted to achieve his goals, and he came up with the acronym P.R.I.D.E. to express his expectations for himself and his team: Professionalism, Responsiveness, Integrity, Dedication and Energy.

New West operates in a professional environment where the team finds innovative solutions for clients and staff is responsive, always answering the phone and responding quickly to clients. The team acts with integrity, doing the right thing even when no one is watching, is dedicated to providing the best possible service and brings energy and a positive attitude to the work every day to ensure clients have a great experience. Through the application of P.R.I.D.E., employees feel connected and invested in the company’s success, which in turn elevates the customer service levels to create strong connections with clients.

“New West has been and continues to be industry leaders in employee and customer

Photo by Riverwood Photography

satisfaction. We take great pride in building long-term relationships with our customers and employees,” says Bryan Hutchinson.

The leadership team is meeting with a professional facilitator to revisit and finetune its core values to ensure the company is best equipped to continue on its current trajectory and maintain those high levels of service and satisfaction.

“It’s the little things that make a big difference,” says Stahl, and that difference has helped facilitate the incredible growth of the company.

Photo by Riverwood Photography

A FOCUS ON GROWTH

Stahl’s vision has always been set firmly on growth and it started with a name change. He saw his as a company with no boundaries that would be built on the strength of the team operating it, not any one individual. He didn’t want to name the company after himself, as he intends to have the dealership live on long after he’s gone. With a new name but the same strong relationship with Freightliner and other manufacturers, Stahl set out to have New West Truck Centres be the go-to company for the gamut of truck, service and parts needs across the region.

“I wanted to be beyond the envelop of Southern Alberta and really open it up to a broader potential market. We talk about our goals, and originally it was 20 rooftops in 10 years. That’s our current BHAG,” he says.

Congratulations to Greg, Adam and your team for 15 years in business!

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New West is well on its way, and that goal isn’t nearly as audacious as it seemed when the team was sitting around the boardroom articulating their vision for the company. On top of its Calgary head office and body shop, New West has locations in Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat as well as its first British Columbia branch in Cranbrook and a brand-new location in Balzac.

The company is nimble, and its quick decision-making leads to great value for clients. The new Balzac location is a great example. That location came to fruition after a discussion about the millions of square feet of warehousing that had been built north of Calgary

because of the airport’s expansion to include a runway accommodating massive cargo planes. As more of New West’s customer base was relocating to Balzac, the team identified the value of a parts and service outlet there to make it more convenient for those clients to come see them. They had the real estate agent on the phone that afternoon and established its Balzac location shortly after.

“We’ve been growing so fast that it has forced us to be more disciplined with our strategic planning. We are spending more time around the table having thoughtful discussions about strategic planning so we can map our future, because we do have big plans,” says Asplund. Those plans include opening a new body shop to better accommodate the company’s increased workload. NWTC opened the current body shop across the street from the head office in September 2019 and they quickly outgrew the space. The team found a new space down the street and is in the process of developing a state-of-the-art 25,000-square-foot shop that will have everything required to complete body work for clients, from new paint to frame straightening. New West will double its current body shop staff of 15 in the new space, and the old location will be converted into a pre-delivery inspection centre for New West’s trucking products. The leadership team is always looking for ways to improve efficiencies in the business in order to provide the best services to its client base.

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WHAT NEW WEST TRUCK CENTRES DOES BEST

Clients appreciate the expertise of a full-service heavy duty truck dealership that specializes in new and used truck sales, has a comprehensive parts department and performs collision repair and service for all models and types of heavy vehicles. The licensed technicians have the experience to do almost anything a customer could want onsite, whether that is a custom paint job or a total engine overhaul and anything in between.

On the sales side, NWTC’s main segment is truckload carriers, but the company also meets the needs of clients operating with any vocational application including dump trucks, utility service vehicles, refuse, hydrovac, highrail, cement mixing trucks and pick-up and delivery vehicles. The company has a great relationship with Daimler Truck Financial and can offer clients incredible financing and leasing options to make it easier for them to get behind the wheel of a NWTC vehicle.

The company stocks heavy trucks from the best manufacturers in the business including Freightliner, Autocar and SportChassis, and before COVID ushered in supply chain issues, New West was one of the largest stocking dealers in Canada; the team intends to get

Photo by Riverwood Photography

back to that level as supply chain challenges abate. While customers can see the inventory that’s in stock online, most prefer to work directly with the knowledgeable NWTC sales professionals who understand the intricacies of these sophisticated products and can find them the perfect piece of equipment for their business. Whether the client is new or a long-time partner, a major player in the industry or a modest operation, New West makes each one feel valued.

“We serve a broad client base, from large companies to a one- or two-truck operator. It doesn’t matter the size of the customer, we give them the level of care and attention that every customer deserves,” says Stahl.

The team understands that a client’s truck is their revenue stream. At New West, the sales professionals go above and beyond to ensure that they deliver products quickly to get that truck on the road and that the shop performs efficient service and repairs to minimize downtime that eats into the client’s bottom line. Organization wide, the sales and shop teams have the knowledge and experience to deliver superior results.

EMPLOYEES FUEL THE COMPANY’S SUCCESS

The best and only way to get these results is through quality employees. New West invests in finding the best people for the positions, training them thoroughly and then giving them the experience, opportunity and even formal education to climb the ranks. Employees are treated like family and while they work hard and are serious about what they do, they have a lot of fun too. NWTC experiences little turnover, and the team is proud to be an industry leader and the employer of choice across the region.

“We interviewed some people about what’s important at New West and why they’d want to work here, and we came up with three things: our employees are treated well, trained well and paid well. That’s what a new person looking for a job or looking to move companies is looking for, and we’re able to offer that,” says Bronaugh Curley.

As the company grows, New West is always looking to find smart, enthusiastic, ambitious newcomers to join

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the team. The company has strong relationships with trade schools and supports their programming and student body through scholarships and work placements. Every year, NWTC offers summer student programs along with co-op and practicum opportunities for business students in the office with HR, sales and marketing and for trades and supply chain students looking for experience in the shop and warehouse. Many of these students return to New West after graduation to launch their careers.

“We have relationships with basically every trade school in every market area, but the relationship specifically with SAIT is very strong. We hire up to 20 per cent of their graduating class each year,” says Sidhu.

The company won the 2023 award for Canada’s Best Employers for Recent Graduates and was nominated as a top company for women in transportation in 2022 and 2023. One female up-and-comer is Greg Stahl’s wife and rock, Ashleigh, who is completing the dealership management program at SAIT to learn the business so she can help her husband grow the company. She will be in good company. About 16 per cent of New West’s team are women, and the executive leadership team is committed to not only getting more women into the industry as the company grows but to promoting more women into well-deserved managerial and leaderships positions. It is a diverse group of employees, and they all bring different skillsets that keep New West ready for future growth.

Photo by Riverwood Photography

COMMITTED TO COMMUNITY

That growth will only come if the industry stays strong. To ensure the industry thrives, members of the leadership team remain active on industry boards and committees. Manny Sidhu has been on the advisory committee of SAIT’s school of transportation for almost a decade and chaired it for three years, and Greg Stahl is the first vice chair of the Motor Dealer Association (MDA) to come out of the heavy-duty truck industry.

This involvement allows them to stay abreast of changes and innovations in technology, government regulations and environmental initiatives. New West is staying on the cutting edge of the technology, especially as it explores cleaner energy options. The company supplied chassis to Alberta Zero Emissions Truck Electrification Collaboration (AZETEC), which is testing the long-range fuel cells operating in two hydrogen-powered trucks. As the industry leans into the adoption of electric trucks, NWTC is committing to electrification as they procure new equipment starting with its first electric forklift in the Balzac location.

The company is also operating as greenly as possible in the office. Solar panels take up about half of the roof at the head office to help generate their own electricity and they are installing smart thermostats throughout the organization to reduce energy waste and limit the company’s carbon footprint.

“We’ve just drafted our first environmental sustainability policy so there will be a lot more to come on that,” says Sidhu.

New West cares about the environment and the people in it, and it’s important that the company gives back to the community that has supported them over the years. The company supports a variety of philanthropic causes that are important to the team including donations and toy drives for the Alberta Children’s Hospital, support for the service animals at Dogs with Wings, donations and a truck to the food bank and fundraising along with a van for Janus Academy to help enrich the lives of autistic children.

New West has also been a sponsor for the Calgary Flames and the Calgary Stampeders, and Stahl is an ambassador for the Stampeders Foundation to ensure all kids have the chance to play sports. This spirit of philanthropy goes beyond corporate responsibility; Greg Stahl leads by example personally, too. When he won a sizable 50/50 prize at a Stampeders game, he donated it back to the Calgary Colts and Calgary Bantam Football organizations so more kids could fall in love with the game like he did.

LOOKING AHEAD

As a former college football player, Greg Stahl’s philosophy is drawn from Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, and everyone lives those tenets every day at New West: “Ability is what you’re capable of doing, motivation determines what you do, and attitude determines how well you do it.” And as ability meets motivation and attitude, there will be no stopping the New West Truck Centres team.