OPEESA Member and Stihl Distributor Blue Mountain Equipment Completes New Facility

MCKINNEY, TEXAS - Blue Mountain Equipment (BME), STIHL distributor for Texas and Oklahoma, celebrated the grand opening of its new distribution center on September 10, 2010, which included dealers from Texas, Oklahoma, employees, vendors, and STIHL Inc. personnel. Special guests included STIHL Inc. President Fred Whyte, Vice-President Peter Burton, and Jackson D’ Armond, Marketing Communications Manager. Company Founder, Don Crader, and family were also in attendance to celebrate the grand opening.

BME is the sister company to Crader Distributing Company in Marble Hill, MO. Crader Distributing Co. founded in 1944, began selling STIHL in the late 50s and became a distributor for STIHL in 1960. The Crader Family is currently celebrating four generations in the business, and 2010 commemorates their 50th year distributing STIHL products. Crader Distributing Company is the oldest independent STIHL Distributor in the US.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Crader Distributing Co. selling STIHL, Fred Whyte, on behalf of the Stihl Family from Germany; STIHL Inc. Virginia Beach VA, presented to the Crader family a fully operational 50 year old STIHL tractor. STIHL produced tractors, sold only in Europe, during the 1950s and early 60s.

The new BME facility, located adjacent to the Collin County Regional Airport in McKinney, TX, doubles the size of its previous facility at 108,000 sq. ft. The project started in October 2009 and was completed in July of 2010. The first floor of the office is 8,000 sq. ft., and is dedicated primarily to dealer technician training and a service shop. The second floor provides offices for order entry, customer service, inventory control, merchandising, and sales and marketing.

32,000 sq. ft. of the 92,000 sq. ft. warehouse is climate controlled. The warehouse also features four 24’ BA ceiling fans, insulated roof, indoor motion sensor lighting, low EE rated windows, 12 truck docks, 11 picking/packing stations, 35' tall ceilings, and will hold over 10,000 pallets of STIHL product.

Blue Mountain Equipment first opened in Dallas in 1988. When BME outgrew the original facility, it moved to McKinney, TX, in 1996. A warehouse expansion was completed in 2000, but only a few years later, thanks to efforts of its independent dealers, there was a need for a larger building. The new facility on Airport Drive is located on 10 acres, is 108,000 sq. ft., and has room to add an additional 70,000 sq. ft. in the future, says Robin Hastings Sales Manager for BME.

The facility shows the commitment the Crader Family; STIHL has made to its Texas and Oklahoma STIHL dealers. "We can only thank the Independent STIHL dealers for the tremendous growth over the past few years and for helping to make STIHL the #1 Selling Brand of handheld outdoor power equipment in America*," Hastings said.

*Number one selling brand is based on syndicated Irwin Broh Research (commercial landscapers) as well as independent consumer research of 2009 U.S. sales and market share data for the gasoline-powered handheld outdoor power equipment category combined sales to consumers and commercial landscapers.