Pursuing Excellence: One Man's Journey

Mar 22, 2021 - 5 years ago

FRONT PAGE STORY: Brutus Truck Bodies, a division of Nor-Mar Industries Ltd. celebrating 40 years of excellence, is still under the direction of the company’s founder and president Gerry Turchak, along with the able assistance from members of the Turchak family. It is here that Gerry Turchak continues to exemplify the eight keys of excellence on a daily basis. By Ronald Mullins

The eight keys of excellence are integrity, understanding that failure leads to success, always speaking with good purpose, focusing your attention on the present, commitment, ownership of everything you do, flexibility, and work-life balance.

Constantly pursuing the keys of excellence should be the mantra of every business owner, business man, and business woman desiring success. Excellence means doing your very best in your every effort. This requires competence, but competence does not come without a high level of effort. Pursing excellence is not just an act or mantra — it is a habit. The modus operandi of the majority or the ordinary is, ‘Can I do it?’ The modus operandi of the extraordinary, those who pursue excellence is, ‘How can I do it?’

Canada, from coast to coast to coast, is generously sprinkled with extraordinary people. People who are making a difference. People who are successful. People who excel both in their personal lives as well as in business. People who are constantly pursuing excellence in their every action. People who are constantly figuring out the ‘How to do it!’

Penticton, British Columbia, a mid-sized city located in the southern region of the Okanagan Valley, has its fair share of those who pursue excellence everyday. People leading companies involved in agriculture, forestry, hospitality, innovation, aviation, real estate, construction and manufacturing — a list that barely scratches the surface.

One of those Penticton-based, exceptional manufacturing companies with an ever-expanding North American and global footprint is Brutus Truck Bodies, a division of Nor-Mar Industries Ltd. Nor-Mar Industries, birthed in 1981 and celebrating 40 years of excellence, is still under the direction of the company’s founder and president Gerry Turchak, along with the able assistance from members of the Turchak family. It is here that Gerry Turchak continues to exemplify the eight keys of excellence on a daily basis.

In The Beginning

Born in Canada’s western province of Saskatchewan and raised on a farm, Gerry learned from a very early age the importance of hard work and the ability to focus on the task at hand. He would add the other keys to excellence further along life’s road.

Gerry’s career in business began in Regina, the capital city of his home province, with the farm division of International Harvester. International Harvester (IHC) was formed in 1902 with the merger of McCormick Harvesting Machine Company and the Derring Harvester Company and was a US-based manufacturer of agricultural equipment, automobiles, commercial trucks and more. IHC was the market share leader in many regions of western Canada.

Business success followed quickly for Gerry, with his transfer to the International Harvester truck division in Regina and his appointment to the position of zone manager. He was a busy young man, setting up and managing the company’s dealership network in south central Saskatchewan.

When IHC moved their head office to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Gerry made the move with them. This move expanded his responsibilities, and his management territory now stretched from the Ontario cities of Port Arthur and Fort William (now Thunder Bay) to the Saskatchewan/Alberta border and from the Northwest Territories to the Canada/USA border. A huge territory to cover considering it all had to be done by car or maybe an… International truck.

As IHC’s market share expanded, Gerry’s next transfer was to Kelowna, British Columbia. This transfer was short-lived as within the year, IHC wanted Gerry and his family to move to Ontario. Problem for the company… Gerry and his wife had experienced their first Okanagan winter and all the other benefits of living in the spectacular Okanagan Valley, therefore moving to Ontario was not even up for discussion in the Turchak household. However, this decision in turn created another problem, this time for Gerry and his family. No job. No salary.

Success Starts Small

Gerry started looking for opportunities all the while adhering to another of those keys of excellence: focusing on the present. With his background and success in truck dealerships, he was soon a welcome partner in a small, start-up International Truck dealership in the burgeoning city of Penticton. Over time and acquisition, he would eventually become the principal of Nor-Mar Truck & Equipment Ltd., the International Truck dealership (now Navistar International) in his family’s new hometown. Nor-Mar Truck and Equipment Ltd. was a very successful business that lasted for 31 years before Gerry sold the company.

In the midst of this Nor-Mar business success, another totally unexpected opportunity arose. A local logging customer showed up in the truck dealership’s body shop with the box on his new pickup truck severely damaged. Damaged as the result of trying to bring a heavy-duty logging skidder tire to town for repairs. So Gerry put another one of those keys of excellence to work…failure leads to success.

Gerry’s first focus, of course, was on solving his customer’s immediate problem, and together they agreed that a stronger, much more rigid box or truck body for hard-working pickups had to be designed and built. Gerry’s next move was to travel to Vancouver where he purchased two ‘bush boxes’ from coastal logging companies and brought them back to his shop in Penticton. Next he invited three local loggers to join him in the Nor-Mar body shop and together they sat down with a tape measure, pencil and paper, some drawing chalk and designed a workable solution. Shortly thereafter, the first heavy-duty steel pickup truck box was built.

A Business Born

The first Brutus Box had been built. Brutus Truck Bodies was born…although no one realized it at the time. Now, 40 years later, the company has attained the status of North America’s premier custom truck body manufacturer, and still builds and sells the Brutus Box along with a myriad of other custom truck bodies. Each one is expertly manufactured out of steel and/or aluminum for dozens of industry applications including forestry, construction, mining, oil fields, site safety, governments, municipalities and even recreational vehicles, and in turn delivered to customers throughout North America and an ever-expanding number of other countries.

Today, Nor-Mar Industries and Brutus Truck Bodies operates out of a series of nondescript buildings in the industrial section of Penticton. Gerry Turchak remains as the company’s president and chief cheerleader and, along with the able assistance of his son Curtis, manages a full-time staff of 80 or more men and women including engineers, welders, electricians, mechanics, autobody men, painters, delivery drivers, and business support staff. Gerry Turchak understands and appreciates how vitally important loyal staff are to the success of his business with many employees being with the company for over 25 years, with the longest, loyal-to-Gerry for 38 years.

Earned; Not Given

As Gerry proudly toured this writer through the Brutus Truck Bodies manufacturing facility, three things immediately impressed. Firstly, the high quality and attention to detail in the manufacturing process; secondly, the cleanliness and total organization of the operation; and thirdly, and likely the most important, was the way Gerry Turchak addressed his staff. He spoke to each one greeting them by their first name, he asked about their family members by name, he was aware of and interested in their activities outside of their work-day world, and they in turn called him Gerry — excellence in integrity, commitment, balance — always speaking with purpose and attention to the present moment.

When Curtis Turchak, the company’s sales manager, was asked, “What makes your dad run? What makes him do what he does? What makes him the success he is?” The answer was immediate…”Hard work! Dad is fairly famous for working a lot.” Curtis went on, “When it snows, he could be here for six days on the loader, working twelve hour days. Relentless. He just loves to work. He comes in every single day. He is the hardest working guy I have ever met! He’s here most Saturdays — and even some Sundays — working in the yard organizing things. Everything has a place and a place for everything. He just loves what he does.”

How the name ‘Brutus’ came about is also an interesting part of Gerry’s story. Those who are familiar with Shakespeare and Julius Caesar know all about Marcus Junius Brutus, a Roman senator and the most famous of the assassins of old Julius. But that is not the source! Gerry Turchak, no stranger to hard work was also no stranger to fun and the need-for-speed and as a young man he raced snowmobiles throughout Saskatchewan and Manitoba. He even raced sleds against one of Canada’s most famous racing sons, the late Gilles Villeneuve in Beausejour, Manitoba, the self-proclaimed snowmobile racing capital of Canada. His racing sled was strong and fast…and the name on the side of the sled was…Brutus. Guess what name stuck and transferred to the new truck box creation?

Although Gerry Turchak is a very hard worker and business success has followed, that work-life balance key to excellence continues to be an important part of his life. Gerry’s need-for-speed and high-speed fun has endured. For a number of years he was a partner in the Penticton Speedway, a local stock car track, and was the builder and driver of several stock cars. Today his car collection in his ‘man cave’ consists of two outstanding vehicles, a 1967 Pontiac GTO show car, and a 1968 Camaro… both built from the ground up for show and speed. Snowmobiling is still part of his winter fun…and rest assured the snow machine that he drives is not likely ‘stock’!

It has been said that it can take 10,000 hours of practice to achieve excellence. Excellence means doing your best at whatever you do. Gerry Turchak has pursued it for over 70 years and works hard every day to sustain a level of excellence in his personal and business life that many can only dream of…proving excellence is not given…it is earned.

Business Friends and A Need-For-Speed

It has often been said there are three types of friends. Family friends. You know the kind: the aunt who is ‘always’ spinning a yarn and the uncle who is ‘never’ wrong. Personal friends and business friends. Many business ‘experts’ claim that the latter two should be kept apart, but we all know that the lines between business and personal friends can often become blurred.

That is the case between Nor-Mar Industries and Supply Post. In the beginning Ken Kenward, grandfather of current Supply Post’s president Jeff Watson, needed advertisers to keep his fledgling publication, Supply Post on the the presses. Gerry Turchak, needed advertising to let as many people as was possible know what his fledgling business Nor-Mar Truck and Equipment Ltd. was all about and what they were selling. Ken and Gerry needed each other and they became friends, and when hard times came along, as it often does in business, they were there for each other. The records will have to be verified…but it is claimed that Gerry Turchak and his Nor-Mar companies have had an advertisement in every Supply Post publication for the last 50 years. Now that is ‘above and beyond’ business loyalty.

Today, this loyalty and friendship continues. When Jeff Watson makes a ‘business call’ to Gerry Turchak’s office or Gerry makes a ‘business call’ to the Supply Post offices, ‘business’ is dealt with as quickly as possible and the rest of the day is spent discussing ‘things’ automotive-speed related as both men have fast cars and motorcycles… you know… a need-for-speed.

Ronald Mullins is a Kelowna, B.C. based writer / photographer and is a regular contributor to Supply Post.