How Keith’s Trailer Sales is Laying the Foundation for Future Growth with IDS

For many dealers, 2023 was a challenging year. The market was slow, and they did not experience the growth they were hoping for. But one trailer dealership did grow—in fact, they more than doubled their revenue.

That dealership is Keith’s Trailer Sales in Erin, Ontario. The Keith in question is Keith Barrick, Founder, who decided to try flipping trailers from his driveway 20 years ago and turned it into a thriving business.

We chatted with Keith to learn more about his dealership’s growth so far, and how they’re laying a solid foundation for future growth with IDS.

Rapid Growth Year-Over-Year

What started as a hobby to make some spending cash soon became a passion. In 2014, he decided to turn his hobby into Keith’s Trailer Sales Incorporated.

Fast-forward to today: Keith’s Trailer Sales now boasts an 11,000 square-foot indoor shop with 6.6 acres of parking lot and a seven-bay service shop.

“It was a staggering amount of growth. When Covid hit in 2020, we were at 1.2 million. Then in 2021, we were at 2.4 million. 2022, we were at 4.4 million and then 2023, we were at 8 million.  So, you can see year over year doubling.”

The Problem: It Was Time to Get Their Backend in Order

With rapid growth inevitably comes a few growing pains.

“If you go back to where that growth was happening, we’re scrambling trying to keep up with the demand and the volume—which we were doing. But when you do that and you go from one guy, with my truck flipping trailers, to now staff and everything…The problem was I never took the time to establish the systems and practices within the dealership.”

Keith’s wife, Ally Barrick, is part owner of the business. She handled the books using QuickBooks. That worked for a while, but as the business grew, so did their accounting and inventory management needs.

“It was bulk sales and bulk cost of goods. We never had a proper inventory management system. Now, fast forward to the end of 2022, we’re at 172 units sold. Now we’re handling warranty work for new trailers. We have no system in place for this. It was beyond unmanageable.

Any service invoices we were doing were just handwritten. Tracking stuff became very difficult because of the volume.”

What did Keith do? Well, he already had his sights set on a specific solution.

The Solution: Laying a Solid Foundation with IDS

One of Keith’s first jobs was at Hitch House, a nearby RV dealership. They use IDS and he could remember how in-depth the reporting capabilities were. But he wasn’t sure if he was ready to take the plunge and make the investment.

So, he called up a friend of his at another dealership that run on IDS and asked them for their opinion.

“I called them and asked their opinion and they said they wish they had gone with IDS first. They did two iterations of dealer management software prior to IDS, and they ended up having to revamp everything twice. It’s a lot of work, a lot of cost, and a lot of wasted dollars. So, in my head, the only software we were going to use was going to be IDS.”

Read our interview with Hitch House on how they rose from the ashes after a devastating fire here.

IDS: The Nucleus of Keith’s Trailer Sales

IDS provides complete dealership management software that creates a seamless flow of information between all areas of your dealership, from service to inventory to accounting.

“We’re building our systems around the system that we’re keeping for forever. We had all the outer facilities sorted out. What we were missing was the nucleus. [IDS] pulled all the things we were doing well together, and everything works in harmony.”

“It was what we needed. Any dealer who isn’t on a management system, who’s running on QuickBooks, they need this. That’s it. I’m actually supposed to get on a call with another dealer from Saskatchewan to give them that pitch because they’re running the same way we were prior.

There’s no way that we would even be sustaining if we had not switched to IDS. We’re on a growth trajectory. We did not have systems in place. IDS came in and streamlined everything for us. Service, parts, sales accounting—all of it, streamlined.”