Dealer to stay open after losing brand

By Don Shilling

Sterling commercial trucks are being discontinued as the company closes factories.

AUSTINTOWN — A local truck dealer is scrambling after it learned Tuesday that it is losing one of its two major lines.

West Gate Ford-Sterling Truck Sales intends to remain open and keep its nearly 50 employees on staff, said Greg Beule, company vice president.

Daimler AG, the German automaker, said Tuesday that it would drop its Sterling brand of commercial trucks next March.

The local dealership, located at Interstate 680 and Meridian Road, has its $15 million in annual sales split evenly between Ford and Sterling, Beule said.

“We’re not closing up by any means, no matter what we have to do,” he said.

The dealership has agreed to continue servicing Sterling trucks and selling parts for them, which will provide revenue, he said. About half of the dealership’s revenue comes from service and parts sales.

Beule said he will look to bring in another truck line but isn’t optimistic that he will succeed. Regulations don’t allow dealers for a brand to be within 10 miles of each other, and West Gate is close to dealers for the Freightliner and International brands.

Beule said he will talk to Peterbilt about a franchise, but that company hasn’t been interested in the past because it has a dealership in Butler, Pa.

His last option is to increase sales of Ford trucks. The dealership offers light-duty and medium-duty trucks from Ford.

The trucks from Sterling were tractor-trailer rigs, dump trucks and a smaller commercial truck that had just been launched.

Beule said Sterling sales had been down earlier this year but had picked up the past two months.

Daimler said it was restructuring its North American truck division because of “depressed demand.”

It will continue offering its Freightliner and Western Star brands but end production at two plants in the U.S. and Canada by mid-2010. An Ontario plant will close in March and a plant in Oregon will shut down in 2010.

Beule said the Freightliner and Western Star production will be moved to Mexico, while the company’s military vehicles will be produced at a Daimler plant in North Carolina.

The Associated Press said about 2,300 workers at the Ontario and Oregon plants will lose their jobs, as will about 1,200 administrative workers.

shilling@vindy.com