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In 2010, we got a phone call we never expected — from a building-supply owner in Newfoundland who needed trucks fast. That single call ended up sparking a national truck-sourcing program that dealers across Canada still rely on today.
The caller was Clooney Shepherd, former president and owner of Notre Dame Agencies and a major player in the Castle Building Group. At the time, he operated multiple Castle stores across Newfoundland. He’d heard about the truck program we were running for Home Hardware — through a nephew working at a store in Nova Scotia — and decided to see if we could help him too.
Clooney was dealing with the same headaches most independent building-centre owners faced back then. Truck sourcing was fragmented and inconsistent. Every dealer negotiated on their own, every purchase was one-off, and pricing varied wildly depending on who you spoke to that week. There was no structure, no process, and no unified buying power. Just time wasted and money left on the table.
We handled his request the way we handle all of them — directly and without friction. We sourced four used International flatbed trucks, had them ready for inspection, and Clooney flew to Toronto to look them over himself. Everything checked out, he signed the deal, and before heading off to a dealer council meeting in Florida, we got into a conversation that changed everything.
That’s when we learned he wasn’t just buying for one store. He was the president of the Castle dealer network. We handed him a stack of business cards, and he referred us straight to Serena Kalani, the CFO of Castle Corporate in Mississauga at the time. Clooney told her, plainly: “Work with these guys.”
From there, the door opened. We built a full truck-sourcing program for Castle dealers — a system parallel to what we’d already built for Home Hardware. Same suppliers. Same negotiated discounts. Same streamlined white-truck ordering setup. We confirmed with Home Hardware that there were no issues or conflicts, and they agreed. No trade secrets. No competitive concerns. Just a working model being expanded to support more independent dealers.
Castle, being a buyers’ group rather than a traditional franchise, had its own identity challenges at the time. Many stores operated under their own long-standing names and didn’t even use the Castle branding on their signage. Some efforts were made to standardize it, with mixed success. But despite the variability in branding, every dealer still needed trucks — and they all faced the same sourcing challenges.
The new program changed that. Dealerships gained access to organized purchasing, consistent pricing, reliable supply, and improved financing options. Around the same time, Toyota Financial shifted away from financing all building-centre trucks, which created gaps for dealers. We helped fill that void by bringing in flexible financing partners who could support both Home Hardware and Castle members equally. Whether a dealer ordered one truck or ten, the process became predictable and efficient.
What started as one unexpected phone call became a long-running program that delivered real structure to independent dealers across the country. It’s a reminder of how much impact a single conversation can have. When you remove friction from truck sourcing, owners get their time back, fleets stay on the road, and margins improve.
Whether you run one building centre or a dozen, your truck buying process doesn’t need to be chaotic. When you’re ready for a system that works the same way every time, we’re here to build it with you.
