Michigan-based The Shyft Group, Inc. has announced a new purpose-built 70,000 square-foot facility in Lebanon, Tennessee, about 30 miles east of Nashville, to serve as both a sales branch and an operations center for upfit, mounting, fabrication, undercoat, and paint services to its service body and accessory brands.
These brands include Royal Truck Body, DuraMag, Magnum, and police car upfit and light accessories from Strobes-R-Us.
The Lebanon facility is The Shyft Group's 17th manufacturing facility; the company’s coast-to-coast network is capable of reaching over 80 percent of the nation’s population within a 300-mile radius of those locations. This enables lower distribution costs, improved customer service, and – as the industry sets ambitious climate/ESG goals – lower emissions.
“Outstanding synergies from our two service body brands located on opposite coasts along with accessory brands that provide truck headache racks and lighting packages have resulted in strong sales growth,” said Daryl Adams, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Shyft Group. “Bringing them together to provide a one-stop work truck solution in the Nashville market, one of the fastest growing U.S. economies in a state that reaches 50 percent of the country’s population within a 650-mile radius, will only further accelerate that growth.”
Royal Truck Body’s new steel XP Service Body to be distributed out of Nashville is precision engineered to eliminate water, salt and chemical traps and features a proprietary high-endurance coating system for a glossy and durable finish to seal out weather and wear. This unique coating formulation features a high-edge epoxy primer designed to provide an extra degree of corrosion resistance appropriate for heavy-duty on- and off-highway equipment. The ultra-durable, scratch-resistant polyester topcoat also provides maximum gloss retention under sustained UV exposure.
Unlike the competition that tests their coatings using a constant salt spray, the new XP coating system has been validated through third-party cyclical corrosion testing that reflects the equivalent of five years of real-world usage in corrosion-prone environments. In addition, the XP body has successfully run durability testing on a proprietary impact-inducing shaker test rig and on the punishing proving grounds of a leading commercial testing facility equivalent to 250,000 miles loaded at full gross vehicle weight (GVW).
“We know that protecting the investment made in service vehicles is critical to our customers and salt on roads in the winter can be one of the biggest impediments,” said Steve Guillaume, the President of Specialty vehicles with The Shyft Group. “In side-by-side comparisons, the XP Service Body’s high-endurance proprietary coating visually outperforms the competition in simulated real-world cyclical salt tests. This anti-corrosion strength combined with advanced UV and scratch resistance makes this coating a game changer for fleet protection.”
This new XP Service Body comes fully loaded with an extensive complement of standard features including open-top storage, internal hinges, factory-keyed locks as well as popular options such as ladder racks and an internal master lock security system. The XP Service Body is now available in eight- and nine-foot configurations with an 11-foot model coming later this year at Royal and DuraMag branches, including Nashville, as well as select dealers and distributors.
The DuraMag full portfolio of all aluminum premium service and truck bodies will also be offered and are built to endure with less maintenance, lighter weight for higher payloads, and reduced wear and tear. Magnum creates headache racks that protect passengers, payload, and the truck itself—ideal for trade workers as well as outdoor enthusiasts with bulky equipment like ATVs or snowmobiles; the racks are often built with Strobes-R-Us lighting packages, which are also used for police cars and other emergency vehicles.
“Our ability to provide the ultimate service body in aluminum or steel and customized with industry-leading features, racks, and accessory lighting to meet the needs of the crews using the work trucks day in and out is a strong advantage in the market,” said Guillaume. “We are excited to bring this complete offering to Tennessee and the entire Southeastern region of the US.”
Company information is available at www.theshyftgroup.com.