OSHAWA, Ont. – The intoxicating “new building” and BBQ smell was in the air at the Tallman Truck Centre grand opening in Oshawa, Ont. today.

After three years of planning, the new Tallman Truck Centre finally opened its doors to the public and the centre of the company’s focus was its supportive customers.

“I want to thank all our customers, venders and the heart of the whole group, my employees,” said Andy Gaber, the general manager for the location. “Tallman truly believes in customer support and we truly believe that if we look after our customers they will come and that’s the Tallman motto – if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t be here.”

The grand opening included a free BBQ lunch for attendees and was marked with the traditional ribbon cutting ceremony at the front entrance of the shiny new 20,000 sq-ft dealership visible from Hwy. 401. The Mayor of Oshawa, John Henry, was there to cut the ribbon in front of nearly 75 customers, staff, family and friends. He discussed the importance of the centre’s location and how joining Oshawa’s booming community will surely affect sales.

“When you see a building being reinvented in a city, it shows the city is alive,” said the Mayor. “You’ll now realize that if you’re in business in this community, that we are the second fastest growing economy in the province of Ontario next to Toronto.”

The construction of the building didn’t come easy. In fact it underwent multiple blueprint changes over three years before staff was able to work comfortably work in the new place. Construction of the new building took just over one year to complete.

“What you see here today, is really from the ground-up, entirely new construction,” said president Kevin Tallman. “We had an existing building that we completely bulldozed. We had to build it in two phases so we could remain open but built a brand new shop in the back, and once that was done we put everyone in office trailers and bulldozed the front.”

The new building has a driver lounge and 15 service bays. Tallman invested more than $4.5 million into the construction and purchase of the land because of their growing customer base.

“We expect this company in Oshawa to continue to be the industry leader,” Tallman said. “Our general manager Andy Gaber has done an exceptional job right out of the gate of getting Tallman recognized as a premier service provider and I think just continue our leadership position in the market.”

Even though the fresh coats of paint has just finished drying on the new building, Tallman is hoping that construction for this location isn’t over just yet.

“My greatest hope for this building is that we didn’t add enough square footage and that we’ll need to add on in the years coming years with how well we’ve been received and the service volumes that we have, “ he said. “I don’t think that will be too far away. I’m pretty excited about growing and further expanding the business.”