Business Spotlight: Springfield Brake Co.

Owner: Johnny Johnson

Founded: 1940

Address: 1225 E. Trafficway, Springfield, MO 65802

Phone: (417) 862-9233

Fax: (417) 862-8180

Web: www.springfieldbrake.com

E-mail: alumley@springfieldbrake.com

Services/Products: Warehouse distributor of heavy-duty truck parts and truck repair

Employees: 40 to 45

From its humble beginnings as a one-man repair shop in 1940, Springfield Brake Co. has grown steadily to become a nationally known parts supplier and full-service repair facility for heavy-duty trucks.

Herb Johnson started Springfield Brake Co. at College and Main streets in 1940. Soon he started carrying parts and concentrating more on heavy-duty vehicles. His son, Johnny Johnson, started working in the business while in college, running the repair shop, working in sales and learning every aspect of the business. Today, Johnson is the sole owner, but he is semiretired, trusting his managers to run daily operations.

In the shop

In 1955, Springfield Brake moved to its 23,000-square-foot facility at 1225 E. Trafficway.

“The shop will hold about eight to 10 trucks at a time, and we stay full all the time,” says Allen Lumley, vice president of Springfield Brake.

According to Lumley, customers include major truck fleets, municipalities, school buses, owner/operators, construction fleets and even smaller repair shops. The company keeps revenues private, but Lumley says 75 percent comes from parts sales and 25 percent from repair services.

An average repair requires about four to six hours, and Springfield Brake will service nearly any truck part.

Since 1991, Springfield Brake has been a member of VIPAR Heavy Duty, a buying group and network of 120 members and 500 stores across the United States and Canada. VIPAR also provides members price breaks and referrals to other member shops across the country for trucking customers that may break down away from their home base.

Jim Frieze, director of maintenance at O&S Trucking in Springfield, says Springfield Brake’s VIPAR connections and customer service once helped him set up a new location. “There are times when I have a truck at my shop, and I need something done at their shop,” he adds. “They’ll come pick it up and take the truck to get the work done and bring it back.”

On the go

Springfield Brake’s parts delivery service comprises 20 support vehicles and a dispatcher dedicated to tracking deliveries and striving for one-hour parts delivery within city limits. Parts also are taken to West Plains, Jefferson City, Sedalia and Eldon five days a week.

Customer demand for parts prompted the opening of locations under the name Premier Truck Parts in Harrison, Ark. in 1996 and in Joplin two years later.

“Basically, we were going there – both locations – five days a week, and we couldn’t get it all in a vehicle,” Lumley says.

As Springfield Brake’s inventory has grown, it has added two warehouses in downtown Springfield for an additional 7,500 square feet of storage.

Toby Mechem, district sales manager for Baldwin Filters, supplies Springfield Brake with filters of every kind in at least weekly shipments. With an average of $500,000 in sales to them annually, Springfield Brake is Mechem’s largest distributor.

“They’ve grown so much, but they’re still privately owned and run like a small company,” Mechem.

Nine salespeople work to build relationships with customers and vendors. Within the last six months, salespeople started accessing inventory and placing orders live from laptops. In 2006, Springfield Brake established online parts ordering, and Lumley says the company has even sent parts to Iraq.

Springfield Brake professionals are challenged to stay abreast of government mandates and to participate in organizations such as the Missouri Association for Pupil Transportation and Missouri Dump Truck Association. Springfield Brake also has a product and technical trainer on staff for both employee and customer training events.

“Over the last 20 years, we’ve taken on a lot of new products, and we have a lot more to offer than we used to,” Lumley adds.

Goals include adding locations, considering new product lines and expanding into the medium-duty and motor coach markets.