By Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
Badger Truck Center has been in the commercial truck business for 50 years. Now it is adding more retail sales to its business mix. It recently acquired a Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership. This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship between Badger and retail customers.
“”We are always looking for ways to complement our business and provide more solutions for our customers,” marketing manager Chris Duncan told Automotive Buy Sell Report. “Badger is always looking at how it wants to reinvent itself.”
New Glarus Motors, as the CDJR dealership is known, is in New Glarus, Wis., a town of around 3,000 residents located a few hours from Milwaukee. The city touts itself as “America’s Little Switzerland,” and tourism is one of its primary industries. Milwaukee is slowing spreading towards the small town, and it will likely become a bedroom community of the larger city over time.
There were only ten employees when Badger acquired New Glarus Motors and a first move was to add staff in the service department, said Duncan. The dealership wasn’t selling that many vehicles, she said, but “its service department was doing really well.”
Doing business in such a small community has its own special characteristics, Badger has found. For example, customers of the service department at New Glarus Motors know the service manager personally and contact him directly to make an appointment.
Badger also hopes to expand the sales staff, said Duncan, and to expand the used section. It figures that if it pulls in customers for a used car sale, when they are ready to buy a new car they will consider New Glarus Motors.
Most of the business at the new store will likely be retail, she said, but Badger was also very interested in the potential commercial business with the Ram truck line. It will compliment Badger’s Isuzu and Ford truck lineup, said Duncan.
Wedding tip
Badger Truck Center has been in business for 50 years, and is a second-generation family-owned business. Three family members work at Badger, said Duncan, who is not related to the owners.
It has a history of developing new business lines. Over the years, it has added a variety of truck equipment to its offerings, including dump bodies, van bodies, lift gates, and snow equipment. It also leases trucks and rebuilds truck parts, among its various businesses.
Its customer base is much broader than just Wisconsin, and includes municipal governments as far away as Florida, said Duncan. But it also serves small local businesses such as landscaping and private fleets such electric contractors.
Badger heard that the owners of New Glarus Motors wanted to sell from a Badger sales person who got the tip at a wedding. The deal took five or six months to close, said Duncan.
Although Badger primarily does commercial sales, it does have a small retail component at its Ford dealership. It also owns an Isuzu dealership, but that is commercial sales. The Ford dealership, which Badger acquired in 1965, has thrived. That likely helped convince FCA that Badger was a good buyer for New Glarus Motors.
It will have an open house this summer to introduce people to the new owners of New Glarus Motors, and issue some service coupons, said Duncan. Badger also plans to ramp up marketing for New Glarus, and add more digital marketing for all of its businesses. “There are a lot of things we will be doing in the next 12 months that we haven’t even considered” yet, she said.
