By Bob Miller, NTEA Director of Outreach
This article was published in the December 2017 edition of NTEA News.
NTEA visited with Greg Kuper, president of Meyer Truck Equipment. Headquartered in Jasper, Indiana, with a branch in Evansville, Indiana, this family-owned and operated company focuses on southern Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and northern Tennessee markets.
Meyer Truck Equipment was originally founded in 1937 by Leo Meyer, who produced custom van bodies and sold farm bodies. In 2003, Greg left a corporate career and bought the business from then-owner Mike Braun, who also owned Meyer Distributing.
Over the past 15 years, Meyer Truck Equipment has grown from a small, local company to a premier Midwest truck equipment facility. In 2006, the business moved its offices out of a double-wide trailer and into a 4,000-square-foot showroom and corporate location. A 2,500-square foot installation facility was added in 2015 to keep up with demand. Meyer Truck Equipment has 20 employees with 21,500 square feet of shop space.
In 2007, the company purchased a small truck equipment distributor in Evansville. This site has 19 staff, 22,500 square feet of shop, and 4,500 square feet of office and showroom space.
The business is aggressively growing, with annual sales at nine times the volume from 2003.
Meyer Truck Equipment sells and services dump bodies and hoists, flatbeds, service and mechanics bodies, farm and grain bodies, bucket trucks, trailers, snow-fighting equipment, liftgates, van interiors and shelving, and truck accessories. It maintains a significant amount of new and used equipment inventory for customers, which include truck dealerships, leasing companies, municipalities and fleets. The business has won distributor awards from some of the top industry manufacturers.
Mechanics truck with portable welder and crane
With the recent surge of new commercial van products in the market, Meyer is concentrating on providing customers with a comprehensive slate of quality products and services for those vehicles.
The business is also focused on developing a strong online presence, investing in website search engine optimization. This technology has been a critical marketing tool to help expand geographic reach as well as provide ideas and solutions to customers from the comfort of their work or home computers.
Giving back is an important part of the company’s culture. Organizations such as Young Life, Evansville Christian School, Water for People and Evansville Police Foundation have been at the forefront of its community involvement.
In addition to Greg, current owners include his son Todd Kuper and son-in-law Andy Peter. Greg’s office is in the Jasper facility, while Todd and Andy work out of the Evansville location.
Visit meyertruckeq.com or call 812-695-3451 (Jasper), 812-477-5555 (Evansville), or 317-220-6154 (Zionsville) to learn more.