Page Brake
7 CVSN INSIDER August 2009 In 1946, Lloyd Little Page opened a one bay ser-vice shop in downtown Salt Lake City. Barney Lundquist, my great uncle, and Cecil Hansen, my grandfather, began working for Lloyd Page in 1946. My father, Carl Hansen, was hired in 1955 at age 20 as a mechanic and for the next 8 years he worked alongside his father and uncle. In 1963, he cashed in a very small insurance policy and purchased Page Brake. The Page Brake building was expanded and remodeled numerous times until we moved to our present location in January of this year. Since 1968 Page Brake has grown from one small repair shop into a well-known aftermarket truck parts dis-tributor known as the Page Group, which con-sists of 14 locations serving Utah, Idaho, New Mexico, Western Colorado, Western Wyoming, Northern Arizona and Nevada. We no longer have a service shop located in our new building, but we have a rebuild and reline department where we rebuild specialty brakes, air components, off highway, transit and light rail brakes. Five of our locations are in the business of rebuilding and selling driveline and axle components. Western States Friction, a brake shoe remanu-facturing division was originally opened to service the Page Group. However, Western States Friction has evolved into the States Fric-tion Group as a stand alone entity located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Charlotte, N.C and Joplin, Missouri. The States Friction Group is now po-sitioned to service the truck parts industry on a national level. Some of our major strengths are the long tenure with our employees, the knowledge they have, and their willingness to share that knowledge with the younger employees. Our Can Do At-titude is what demonstrates how important teamwork is, how it helps the customer and separates us from our competitors and meets our goal of being the premier aftermarket dis-tributor in our market. Our company is multi-facetted and employee driven, as we focus on providing market solutions and parts availabil-ity for our customers with the best value for their dollar. We have formed strategic partner-ships with our customers and vendor suppliers selling name brand products recognized for quality within our market areas. Future business goals consist of guiding in a new generation of truck parts professionals to service the industry's customers; continu-ing to grow; and educating our employees and customers through factory sponsored training, in house training by our own specialists, and educational materials and seminars offered by our industry's much needed organizations such as CVSN and HD America. CVSN is a great asset to the industry as it is a neutral unbiased organization supporting the independent distributor and the heavy duty industry. The CVSN meetings provide a fo-rum for us to get together as an industry and share ideas and form relationships with indus-try professionals. As a long time member of HD America, I strongly believe that marketing groups are also very valuable. There are many challenges facing not only our own business, but the entire industry. As for our own business, it is a challenge to stay profitable in today's economic environment as we strive to continue providing our customers with quality products and value added servic-es. It is also becoming more difficult to reward successes and provide benefits to our most Page brake Bryan Hansen President CVSN MEMbEr PrOFILE