Since taking up ownership of the Egger Truck and Machine company along with Dale Egger in 2023, Bob Henley has relished the opportunity to provide exceptional customer service while supporting the community in various initiatives.
Henley would move a few times with his family during his youth.
“I was born in Grimsby while my family lived in Dunnville on a chicken farm. We later moved to Flamborough for a time, where I started school. By Grade 6, we moved back to Dunnville, specifically, to the other house on the same chicken farm. My father worked for the chicken farming operation (formerly Sprat, then Clark),” he recalled. “I grew up actively involved in the farm life, helping to raise chickens (broilers, not layers). Our farm was also located directly across the road from the business owned by Roger’s father, which is how my history became intertwined with Roger’s story. As I started high school, I continued to work in agriculture, taking a job on a dairy farm just down the road.”
While growing up, Henley was always fascinated with fixing cars and working on mechanical projects and taking an internship at Egger which would change his life.
“My passion was always mechanics. I was always in the yard building and modifying go-karts out of old lawnmowers. And then I would be ripping up and down the road on these homemade things. When they inevitably broke, I’d tow them back to the yard, fix them up, and head right back out again. Roger [Egger], whose dad’s business was literally across the road from us, saw me doing this all the time. That’s really how I ended up here,” Henley reflected. “Roger moved his shop to the edge of Dunnville around 1999. When high school rolled around, I wasn’t exactly a star student. I was working on a dairy farm down the road, and Roger knew my situation. When it came time for co-op, he took me in. He was the one who really pushed me to finish school, and afterward, he kept me on as an apprentice…I started right on the shop floor—apprenticing [as a] trucking technician.”
Henley continued to learn the ropes, which also included sales.
“Eventually, my work moved over to the agricultural side, installing and fixing high-tech GPS and auto-steer systems on tractors. I also got into repairing sprayers. The big shift happened when the agriculture salesman left. I asked Roger if I could try my hand at selling the sprayers and GPS units. I gave sales a shot, and that’s how I became a salesman,” he said. “Twenty-two years later, my role changed again. I saw Roger’s son, Dale coming up in the business, and I knew he was the one taking over. I went to Roger and told him that I would be interested in being a partner if the opportunity was there. And it did a few years ago…and that’s how it happened. I went from being the kid wrenching on go-karts across the road to a business partner.”
Throughout his two decades, the loyalty and tenure of the company’s employees stand out as some of Henley’s greatest highlights.
“Our company is defined by its deep roots, commitment to community and loyalty. We’re proud to have a strong core of long-term employees, with several staff members, including four or five of us, having over 20 years of service, and some exceeding 30 years. This high tenure, especially within a team of about 20 people, provides a stable, experienced foundation,” Henley maintained. “It’s been exciting to witness the significant growth we’ve achieved since I started, from the size of our operations to the complexity of the high-tech agricultural equipment we now service. The pace of change in the agricultural market—driven by rapidly evolving technology—is constant, making our work dynamic and challenging.”
Nevertheless, another element of the business’s success is being a short line dealer.
“Because we are a privately-owned, single-location business, we are not locked into a single major manufacturer (like Case or John Deere). This independence gives us exceptional flexibility and agility. This flexibility allows us to quickly adapt to market shifts. As we see new technologies, new products, or major changes coming, we have the freedom to immediately pivot and pursue those opportunities. Unlike larger, single-brand dealerships, our ability to go after things as they change is a core competitive advantage that enables us to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving agricultural technology sector,” he stated.
Egger Truck and Machine, however, has offered many services and sold specialized equipment through the years, as well as providing solid customer service.
“The business, originally focused on the ‘trucking and machine’ side, [and] starting primarily as a service and repair shop. This focus was initially driven by the proximity to Roger’s family’s excavating company, which involved a high volume of trucks, including garbage trucks and other heavy equipment. Over time, the focus naturally broadened to include farm equipment repair services. When Roger moved the business to the current building, he immediately added a large parts department and expanded into sales. We have been a Kioti compact tractor dealer for over 20 years, which solidified our transition into a diversified dealership,” the business owner said. “Today, we operate as a true ‘one-stop shop.’ We offer equipment sales and have the capability to repair almost anything. Our service scope ranges from small motorized items like chainsaws and weed whackers all the way up to combines and cranes. We even conduct unique work, like repairs on ships out in Port Maitland. Essentially, if it has an engine or is a mechanical piece of equipment, we can service it.”
As Henley continued to work with Roger through the years (he retired several years ago), he learned many things ranging from repair work to sales to operations.
“He taught me that if you’re doing something you love, something your heart’s in, it simply doesn’t feel like work. And that’s absolutely stuck with me. I know coming in every day is a job, but this kind of work, which I truly love doing, has become a passion, and that makes all the difference. When your heart is in it, it genuinely doesn’t feel like a job. He also instilled in me the crucial quality of resilience; the ability to get through those tougher years,” the business owner explained. “Especially in the agricultural sector…the business is a constant roller coaster. We deal with so many ups and downs, crop prices, yields, the weather, it’s incredibly volatile year by year. He taught me that you need to be able to find ways through those challenges…[and] knowing that you’re going to have good years and bad years. He showed me how to keep a business like this running through all of it.”
Henley’s respect for Roger was akin to that of a son, leading him to become deeply connected with the family.
“Honestly, he took me under his wing when I needed it most. I wasn’t really a ‘school kind of person’ during my time at high school; I struggled [and] had to take extra time to finish. But once I started here, he really invested in me. People would often come in and assume I was his son, and I guess I am the unofficially adopted son of Roger and Betty Egger,” he recounted. “He’s a true people person who genuinely tries to help others wherever he can. I’ve seen him do it with many people here. Of course, not everyone gets it; some people don’t grow and accept the help, or they simply take advantage of it. But then there are those who do take the help, make real changes, and end up succeeding, or as I see it, winning. He taught me that the effort to help is always worth it.”
However, Henley explained the importance of the kind of service that the company offers.
“Because Roger is a licensed technician and came off the service floor, he knows exactly what I know; service is the backbone of sales. You can’t just sell a unit and walk away. That initial sale is fine, but our follow-up service is what actually sells the next unit. You have to care for the customer after the purchase,” he said. “I learned this first hand from being on-call for farmers, especially during spring planting. After a while, they stop feeling like just customers and become more like a community. We’re all trying to do the same thing; keep the crops growing. It’s a shared mission. I think that’s the only way to look at it; as a partnership. Because when you truly look after them, they become your best advocates, referring friends and coming back to you for every future need.”
Another key aspect for the company has been community as well as supporting various charities.
“We’ve always felt it’s crucial to give back and support the community. Roger was a big advocate for the local hospital foundation. We have a great hospital here in Dunnville, but it relies heavily on private funding, so we try hard to support that. We also put a lot of effort into supporting True Experience. They help house people with special needs and give them work—they run a small landscaping company, doing things like cutting grass. We’ve been supporting them for years, supplying them with equipment and helping them grow. I think it’s simple: if you want support from your community, you have to be willing to give support back,” he stated.
However, Egger Truck and Machine has continued to separate itself from its competition, through specialized service, personalized customer engagement, and also carrying specific brands.
“As the only Apache self-propelled sprayer dealer in Ontario, I’ve personally serviced machines across the entire province, from Chatham right up to Renfrew. We cover all of Ontario for these units. I used to be the main ‘road warrior’ here, and I still run calls if the season gets busy, but our tech, Sean, manages the bulk of it now. During the spring rush, he’s essentially living on the road, traveling from farm-to-farm every day, whether it’s for a complex GPS problem or a simple sprayer issue. I’ve driven to Renfrew and back in a day just to hand-deliver a part to keep a farmer going. That’s our philosophy: we service what we sell. If you buy from us, you get an uncompromising commitment to service,” Henley noted. “Most of the bigger brands are consolidating into corporate groups, losing that personal touch. As a family-owned business, we’ll know you by name; you’re not just a customer number. We want to bring you into our family and community. There’s real value in dealing with the same faces, employees who have been here for 20-plus years, versus a large corporation with constant employee turnover.”
As the company edges closer to its 40th anniversary, Henley reflected on the business, as well as a personal highlight for him.
“The biggest highlight for me has definitely been taking over the business and finally getting into ownership in 2023. It honestly felt like a childhood dream coming true. I remember back when I was about eleven or twelve, living in Flamborough, my best friend and I would talk about starting a business. His dad worked at the John Deere dealership, and we’d brainstorm what it would look like if we were running it,” Henley recalled. “He loved tractors, [while] I was more into cars then, and we came up with this idea: ‘every farmer has a truck, so why can’t we work on their trucks and their tractors?’ It was a fantasy then, but when I got into this business, it would [eventually] become reality. And to have the chance to work my way up from the floor to finally achieving that ownership role has been incredible.”
