Nextran building massive Mack brand flagship store outside Atlanta

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Press Release / October 22, 2015

Nextran Corporation, one of the top selling dealers of Mack brand trucks in the nation, broke ground on its state-of-the-art Atlanta regional location adjacent to Highway 85, northeast of Atlanta.

"I'm pleased that Duluth was selected for Nextran's flagship location," said Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris. "It's both an economic boost and an opportunity for new jobs. We are proud to welcome Nextran to our community."

The new, strategically located Atlanta area location, which will create 80 new jobs, is scheduled to open in mid-2016 and will provide convenient access to the many major highway interchanges in the region.

The 55,000 square foot facility will house both sales and service functions, focused on medium and heavy-duty trucks.

The service shop, a large space of more than 120 linear feet, will feature an overhead crane spanning 112 feet, and a separate area for repair of vehicles powered by natural gas.

"With the opening of our 15th location, we continue to expand our network of Nextran Truck Centers to serve our trucking industry customers who have the important responsibility of delivering essential products for America's businesses and consumers," said Jon W. Pritchett, President and CEO, Nextran Corporation. "Our customers rely on us to keep them moving everyday – to us, it's about more than just selling and servicing trucks – it's about helping our customers fulfill the promises they've made to their customers. We take that responsibility very seriously."

"The addition of a new Nextran location to Mack's extensive dealership network will further Mack's ability to offer a low total cost of ownership to customers and help improve uptime support," said Stephen Roy, President of Mack Trucks North America. "Nextran is a recognized leader among truck dealers in terms of service and innovation. This facility will be a flagship dealership for Mack Trucks, and we look forward to our ongoing partnership with Nextran as we continue to provide service and support for our customers."

Nextran Truck Centers are strategically located along major transportation corridors in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The company's product offering include some of the world's strongest brands: Mack Trucks; Volvo Trucks; Isuzu; Ford; and Fuso trucks.

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Nextran still rolling trucks through southeast

The Gainesville Sun / November 15, 2015

Fifty-three year old Nextran Corporation and Pritchett Trucking Jon Pritchett has made an impact on Gainesville, Florida, even though his network of 14 Mack and Volvo heavy truck dealerships, parts and service centers are elsewhere.

Pritchett is president and CEO of the Nextran Corporation, with an office in Lake Butler where his father, Marvin, started Pritchett Trucking 40 years ago. Nextran Truck Centers can be found in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, with the closest in Lake City.

But Pritchett makes his home here. He serves on the executive board of the University of Florida Foundation, raising money for the university, is on the Gator Boosters board and has attended nearly every UF home football game for 20 years. His wife, Kelly, is on the local board of the Children’s Miracle Network.

In 2013, Jon and Kelly Pritchett were named event chairs of Noche de Gala, the Sebastian Ferrero Foundation fundraiser for the UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital.

They attended the second event in 2009. He said that night he wrote “$1 million” on a napkin and told Kelly that one day, he hoped to donate that amount to the cause.

That day came in 2013. They already planned to make the donation in his father’s name before Marvin Pritchett was killed by a former employee who also killed two other Pritchett Trucking employees before killing himself. At that year’s event, Jon and Kelly Pritchett, and his siblings, Phillip Pritchett and Robin Pruitt, donated $1 million in their father’s memory in a speech Jon called “The Promise.”

Marvin Pritchett got his start in the timber business in North Florida for Owens-Illinois.

“He was struggling to get product shipped to different mills so he bought trucks to do the trucking himself,” Jon Pritchett said.

He saw more opportunity in trucking than timber and started Pritchett Trucking, he said. Today, that company has 360 employees, 275 tractors and 550 trailers hauling sand, limerock, stone, municipal solid waste, wood byproducts and other items in Florida and Georgia, with Jon as president, Phillip as vice president and Robin as payroll manager.

Jon started working summers for his dad at age 10 and started his career after leaving UF’s business college during his senior year in 1984.

He said he always wanted to go into the family business, but also wanted to own his own company. He started his own companies, buying and leasing trucks. In 1993, he went into the truck dealership business in partnership with his father when they bought Mack dealerships in Jacksonville and Orlando, adding Tampa the next year.

Jon ran the dealership business and said his father provided insight.

“It was an extremely trusting relationship. Unless I was traveling to a dealership, he and I and my brother had lunch together every day. There’s very few people who can say they had that opportunity. I was extremely fortunate to work together as many years as I did with him.”

In 1999, he bought three dealerships in South Florida and changed the name of the company to Nextran Corporation.

Nextran has 730 employees and expects to sell 2,500 Class A heavy duty trucks this year. Pritchett said 2015 is a big year for sales with over 250,000 expected nationwide as a result of pent-up demand from the recession and an improving economy. Sales are expected to drop to 215,000 next year as buyers are caught up on replacing aging fleets, but that would still be a very good year, Pritchett said.

Over the next five years, Pritchett said Nextran plans to grow to 20 or more locations and 1,000 employees through a combination of acquisitions, expansions and building new locations. The company is in the process of building its 15th dealership in Duluth, Georgia, and plans to remodel and expand its Orlando location next year.

“In the dealership business I felt I had an advantage having been a customer, so I felt like I understood what it truly took to service the trucking industry,” he said. “We’ve worked extremely hard to build this customer-focused culture and it truly has been very successful for us.”