MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — Breadner Trailer Sales is no more; the Canadian firm has been renamed the North American Trailer Centres, a Wabash National Company.

“We were acquired by Wabash at the beginning of this year … The fundamental reason was they wanted to close the gap in their dealer network,” says Craig Sterling, the company’s vice-president in charge of sales. “Back in 1998, Wabash purchased the dealer network, the bricks and mortar, of the bankrupt trailer manufacturer Fruehauf.”

Sterling explains the goal was to strengthen the relationship between manufacturing and marketing of the Wabash line. The only problem was the company was lacking a presence in Canada — that is until it purchased Breadner’s 10 locations, which are spread across the country from Vancouver to Moncton, N.B.

“From a customer standpoint, which is how we’ve been looking at it, they’re able to have one stop shopping anywhere in North America,” he says. All 52 locations use a single computer network, so if you’re on file with the Mississauga, Ont. location, your information can be accessed if need be by a dealer in California, explains Sterling.

Although the new business cards have yet to arrive, the change became official on July 1.