By Bob Miller, NTEA Director of Outreach
This article was published in the June 2017 edition of NTEA News.
NTEA visited O’Reilly Equipment LLC (Newbury, Ohio), owned by brothers Jeff and Paul O’Reilly. Jeff founded the business in 2002 after purchasing a Moritz trailer at an auction to haul hay on the farm he and his brother operated. At that time, he noticed there were no local trailer dealers, so he ended up buying a load of Moritz trailers to sell.
Although the trailers were popular in the summer, Jeff and Paul needed something for winter, so they became a Blizzard Snow Plows dealer. The following year, they added BOSS snowplows and Hillsboro flatbeds for ¾- and 1-ton trucks to their offerings.
As the operation grew, more product lines were adopted, such as light trailer axles, electric brake components, fifth wheel plates, ladder racks, liftgates, tow hooks, specialty lighting and strobe lighting systems. In addition, they started offering farm/ranch bodies in regular steel and aluminum; fifth wheel and gooseneck trailers; and landscape, platform/stake and utility/service bodies. Trailers include cargo, contractor, dump, gooseneck, livestock and utility/equipment.
In 2006, the O’Reilly brothers purchased the five acres of land where they are currently located and constructed a 6,000-square foot building with three installation bays to accommodate growth. At that time, they began focusing more on the truck equipment business by adding Waltco liftgates, Ranger van interiors and STAHL service bodies.
O’Reilly Equipment built special units for Morton Salt to transport workers into salt mines under Lake Erie.
More investment came in 2011 with a 6,000-square foot expansion and then the addition of Switch-N-Go products in 2014. The following year, central hydraulic systems were introduced to the lineup, as well as a focus on dump body sales and service for Class 5 and lighter work trucks. Other services are body remounting, special request fabrications, repair and painting.
In 2011 and each year since, O’Reilly Equipment received the Case Western Reserve Weatherhead 100 award recognizing it as one of the top 100 fastest-growing businesses in Northeast Ohio. It also garnered the Lake-Geauga Fast Track 50 award distinguishing it as one of the fastest-growing companies in the surrounding three counties.
O’Reilly Equipment is community-minded, sponsoring local 4-H clubs and baseball teams; delivering Meals on Wheels; hosting towing safety seminars; and staying active in Leadership Geauga County. In addition, the company is part of NTEA’s Member Verification Program, which recognizes distributors and manufacturers for successfully implementing specified business standards and processes (ntea.com/mvp).
For more information, visit oreillyequipment.com, call 440-564-1234 or stop by 14555 Ravenna Rd. in Newbury.