NORTH JACKSON, Ohio — Leonard Truck and Trailer sells everything from trucks and trailers to livestock to guns to nutritional supplements for livestock.
Over more than six decades, the family-owned company has come a long way from its humble beginnings.
The Leonard family started the business in 1963, selling horses.
“But they figured out people needed a way to get them home, so they started selling trailers too,” Marketing Director Mark Santilli said.
In an interview with Farm and Dairy, he ticked off some of the products you can find on the business’ North Jackson campus.
“Horse and livestock trailers, large equipment haulers, dump trailers,” Santilli said. “The parts department is stocked with tens of thousands of parts. Also on the property is the armory. We have a gun department.”
The business, which is just a stone’s throw from the interchange where Interstate 76 and Interstate 80 intersect in Mahoning County, also includes a repair center, Santilli said.
“The Leonard family of brands encompasses everything,” he said.
Leonard Truck and Trailer sits in a sparsely populated region of northeastern Ohio peppered with trees and the occasional country house. The business shares an exit with a fast food joint, a gas station and a donut shop, with little else interrupting the wooded areas and fields of grass surrounding the trailer-filled parking lot and scattered buildings that make up the venerable company.
A short drive over the Meander Creek Reservoir takes you to Youngstown, the closest city.
The company was founded in 1963 by Stan and Peg Leonard, whose son, Clint, joined the business as a sales representative in 1986. Clint eventually took over, expanding the business and moving it to its current location just off Exit 57 on Interstate 76.
“I was looking to expand it and grow the company,” Clint said. “My parents were at the age where they would like to retire, so it worked well for both of us.”
Today, the company is owned and operated by Clint and his wife, Tiffany. Leonard Truck and Trailer carries the largest in-stock trailer inventory in the nation, with more than 700 new and pre-owned units on site. The dealer also has a 12-bay, 11,000-square-foot service and repair facility.
Why add more to the business over the years?
“It was kind of a natural progression,” Santilli said.
People who buy horses also buy trailers and equipment such as saddles. And if you’re going to sell trailers, why not repair them?
From there, additions like an animal health clinic seemed like a logical step, he added.
A gun store is also not out of place in rural Ohio. The eclectic mix of businesses does not go unnoticed.
“A lot of customers will comment that only in America will you see a gun store in a trailer dealership,” he said.
The Leonard Family of Brands now includes Leonard Truck & Trailer, Basic Animal Health, The Armory Inside LTT and Leonard Cattle Company.
“We have plans to double our current business by 2028. We’ve got a variety of channels, and we’ve added more product lines to our offering of trailers… and we offer multiple tiers of trailers,” Clint Leonard said. “I firmly believe you can only do two things in business: you can go up or down. There’s no status quo, especially in today’s market with all the technology. You can either grow or decline.”
Through it all, the company hasn’t forgotten its roots in the farming and equine community. The family, including Clint and Tiffany’s sons Cash and Cord, competes in National Reining Horse Association events, as well as raising and showing show pigs and cattle.
Leonard Truck and Trailer is a longtime supporter of 4-H, and has been a loyal buyer at the Mahoning County Junior Fair Market Sale. The Future Farmers of America are also among the groups the business sponsors, Santilli added.
“We continue to support youth and keep them involved in agriculture and livestock,” he said.
As for the future, the next generation of Leonards is ready to take the reins when the time comes.
“My son just graduated from high school, and we found something his teacher filled out in first grade,” Clint said. “It asked ‘What do you want to do when you grow up?’ and he said, ‘I want to sell trailers with my dad.’ He’s been pretty consistent about that over the past 12 years.”
Find more information about the company online at leonardtrailers.com or on Facebook.
