On April 1st in 1981, at the age of 27, Doug Harvey purchased what was dubbed at the time 'the losingest' International Harvester dealership in all of Canada. The Winnipeg dealership - where Doug was working as a sales rep - had suffered losses of $250,000 a year for three straight years and interest rates had soared to nearly 20 percent.
"The first couple of years dealt with pure survival," says Harvey, owner of Maxim Truck & Trailer. "Profitability and growth were distant issues back in 1981."
For years, Harvey worked on changing every aspect of the business by focusing on what the customer wanted. Many of the company's acquisition and expansion moves outside of Winnipeg in later years were spurred by customer needs.
Today, under the Maxim Truck & Trailer banner, the dealership group celebrates 40 years in business having survived the stock market crash of 1987, the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, and most recently, the COVID pandemic of 2020.
"Maxim has endured and prospered for 40 years by focusing on the customer, having the best people and giving back to the community," says Harvey. "That blueprint for success holds as true today as it did 40 years ago."
