COLEMAN - A smile spreads across Harvey Stewart's face when asked whether he keeps an eye out for Trout River trailers in his travels.
He does, he admits, and spots them regularly.
"We see a lot in the northern part of Ontario," he reports.
Many of Trout River Industries' live-bottom trailers have made their way to Ontario and Western Canada. "We have trailers in every province now."
Not bad for a company that built its first live-bottom trailer for a local lime hauler in 1999. Because lime has a tendency to clump and stick, the use of traditional dump trailers made tip-overs a real threat, noted the company's owner and president. With live-bottom trailers, the floor moves, sending the cargo out the back without having to hoist one end high into the air. That first trailer is now with its second owner, hauling gravel and potatoes in northern New Brunswick.
Eight of his trailers hauled 700,000 tonne of asphalt for a four-lane highway in New Brunswick one summer.
The company tracks every trailer it has ever sold and Stewart said most are still with their first owners.
Among his staff of 43, he has a Canada-wide sales force determined to keep the demand going strong. Through a special licensing agreement, Trout River trailers are also built and sold in Australia. There has been some initial penetration into Peru's trucking industry, as well.
Trout River's plant opened in Coleman in 2002 and doubled to 30,000 square feet in 2006 to keep up with demand.
"It's just to stay focused," Stewart acknowledged. "We're growing at a controlled rate."
There are 26 modifications incorporated into the company's 2009 trailer, modifications which, Stewart points out, demonstrate his employees listen to what customers are suggesting.
"We get the customers involved, a lot," he acknowledged. "When we send them an update it's: 'Wow, they really did listen.'"
Stewart's commitment to customer satisfaction and to quality helped earn him the Ernst and Young Atlantic Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award at a recent gala in Halifax.
Trout River Industries' Parts and Services manager, Cory Cahill stated Stewart is deserving of the recognition.
Cahill said, "He's a genuine good guy, he really is. When you have someone like that as a leader, it's so much easier to do your job right, and in everyone else's best interest."
Hes the Atlantic regions Entrepreneur of the Year
Owner and president of Trout River Industries, Harvey Stewart, uses a built-to-scale model of one of his live-bottom trailers, to haul a special cargo, the Ernst and Young Atlantic Manufacturing Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Eric McCarthy/Journal Pionee
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Published on
October 22, 2008
- Published on June 21, 2010
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Eric McCarthy
COLEMAN - A smile spreads across Harvey Stewart's face when asked whether he keeps an eye out for Trout River trailers in his travels.
He does, he admits, and spots them regularly.
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