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Trucking Along

With the automotive industry in a tailspin, Tom’s Truck Center Inc. is keeping sales up by getting down to the nuts and bolts of cars and trucks. Literally.

The Santa Ana-based company sells new and used trucks and parts, does repairs and charges for a tech hotline from a collection of old buildings sprawled across 10 acres.

The company, owned by George Heidler and his son K.C. Heidler, sells new and used medium duty trucks,commercial trucks such as tow trucks or dumptrucks,to businesses such as Costa Mesa-based Ingardia Brothers Produce Inc., Irvine-based St. John Knits International Inc., Penske Automotive Group Inc. and Ryder System Inc.

The Heidlers also own The Kia Depot and The Suzuki Depot on a 3-acre lot just off the Santa Ana (I-5) Freeway on Grand Avenue.

The Heidlers’ companies have about $62 million in annual sales, including $21 million in auto sales. The auto dealer business is a separate business, but Tom’s and the dealership operate off the same administration, human resources and accounting backbone.

“The core of the business is the same but the delivery is different,” Heidler said.

One is retail, the other is business to business.

Doug Heidler, another brother, operates a towing business for the city of Santa Ana’s police department and an auto parts salvage business in Garden Grove.

The companies employ some 135 people.


Competitors

Most of Tom’s competitors are based outside of Orange County. Some of those in-clude Rush Enterprises Inc., based in Texas, and Oregon’s Tec Equipment Inc.

Locally, there are a few auto dealerships, such as Garden Grove-based Nicholas Chevrolet, that also sell medium duty trucks.

Unlike auto sales, where customers come in and shop, people who sell big trucks visit the business site.

Tom’s Truck Center works with the business owner or a fleet buyer to design all the components of the trucks. It then works with third parties to put those pieces together.

The average medium duty truck goes for about $45,000. One with a refrigerated cab costs about double that.

It takes about six weeks to six months to put together a new truck.

Some of the brands it carries include GMC, Mitsubishi’s Fuso, Nissan’s UD, Toyota’s Hino and Isuzu.

Profit margins aren’t wide in truck sales because there is a lot of time and labor in putting a truck together, Heidler said.

Tom’s sells, services and repairs trucks for the lifespan of the truck. When a truck can no longer be used, Tom’s takes apart the truck and sells off the box, parts, engines, fuel and coolants.

“It’s a continuous type of revenue,” Heidler said.

The recycling operation also serves to train its auto and truck technicians. Tom’s recruits technicians at technical schools. They start at about $12 an hour. An experienced tech can earn up to $30 an hour.

The truck business has been off significantly since last fall. Excluding large fleet sales, which have stalled, Tom’s went from selling 75 trucks a month to 25. In all, the company used to sell about 300 a month.


Recessionary Behavior

In a downturn, if one truck in a fleet breaks down, a company will just use another truck instead of replacing it.

But when the economy goes soft, dealers should be able to make up for lost sales in parts, service and repair, Heidler said.

Nationwide, Tom’s is No. 1 in Isuzu truck parts sales.

The company sells truck parts nationwide to dealers and repair shops. It also sells parts online at eBay.com and Amazon.com and manages more than 100 Web sites.

“It’s a little profit center for us,” Heidler said.

Its eBay store alone makes about $15,000 a month.

Some of its older workers, who can’t do the heavy duty repair work but who have a lot of knowledge, work the tech hotline, which pulls in about $25,000 a month.

Repair shops and dealers can call and get advice, repair manuals and even rent tools.

“It’s really just a good customer service piece,” Heidler said.

George Heidler bought Tom’s Towing, which was founded in 1949, and a commercial truck business more than 30 years ago.

The company had been around for so long that the Heidler’s kept Tom’s name on it.

“George wanted to keep it personal,” K.C. Heidler said.

George Heidler brought his son in to help with the business in 1990 and now spends his time on various boards.

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