Altruck International Opens Burlington Store
BURLINGTON, ON — Brothers Jeff and Ryan Kirby were smiling broadly as they celebrated the opening of their newest location this past week, here in Burlington, 45 minutes west of Toronto. With eight locations, Altruck International Truck Centre is one of Ontario’s leading International dealers.
Altruck has been serving the industry since 1977, first out of Kitchener where founder Jack Kirby, father to Jeff and Ryan, purchased his first dealership. The two sons grew up in the business and formed a partnership in 1994 to take the reins.
Head office has traditionally been located in Kitchener but that may change as the new Burlington branch offers superior space and amenities. Jeff Ryan says they’ll centralize their sales operations in Burlington, as well as their Capacity shunt truck franchise acquired last year.
The newest Altruck facility offers a total of 45,000 sq ft, two thirds of it dedicated to parts and service. It replaces a small service branch of just 9700 sq ft that served originally as a satellite to the Hamilton store. It was so small that service work had to be turned down at times. Presently there are 30 employees at the new branch but, as with many dealerships, Ryan Kirby says they could use more technicians.
As well as those mentioned, Altruck also has locations in Cambridge, Goderich, and Stratford, plus two in Guelph which will soon become one as the result of a creative deal with MacKinnon Transport. The latter will be building and moving into a new terminal on the property next year but in the meantime will welcome Altruck into its existing facility next month. The dealer is consolidating its two Guelph operations in the relocation to MacKinnon’s Laird Rd. headquarters at the south end of Guelph, a strategic move that puts Altruck closer to the 401 corridor. The two companies have a long-standing relationship going back more than 50 years to a time before the Kirby family bought the Kitchener location.
The new Altruck store in Burlington is situated adjacent to the Queen Elizabeth Way at 5280 South Service Road.
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