Manac purchased the building that served as its longtime Toronto-area sales, parts and service facility at 130 Belfield Rd. in Etobicoke, Ont., about five years ago.
And now, it has officially made the facility its own. The company has completed renovations at the location – the final contractor finished up just this week, we’re told – and opened it to about 150-200 customers for an open house Oct. 16.
For Manac, buying and fixing up its existing location was all about the location.
“We love the location,” Tom Ramsden, vice-president of sales, told trucknews.com at the event. “It’s central for everybody to get here, to get parts, to get any type of service work. It’s a little tight on yard space, unfortunately, but it’s sizeable enough that we can do what we need.”
Manac has space for about 50 trailers in the yard. The company expanded the building footprint by about 60% and now has five full bays. “We added some overhead cranes to the facility,” Ramsden said. The office space has also been improved and warehousing space added.
“The idea was to just make it easier for our customers to get in, get parts, get out of here and to do the full range of service that we want to do for our customers,” Ramsden said.
The renos took about two years to complete.
Now, Manac just needs demand for new trailers to pick up. Asked about the current state of the market, Ramsden said of market conditions: “There are some signs that things will turn, and we’re starting to get a little bit more clarity on what it looks like down the road.”
In the absence of a Class 8 tractor pre-buy ahead of EPA27 regulations next year, Ramsden feels customers may prioritize trailer purchases over power units as they look to refresh their fleets next year. Initially, the reverse was anticipated to be true as fleets were expected to rush to get ahead of EPA27-related price increases on new trucks. But those regulations that have since been thrown in doubt.
This would typically be the beginning of 2026 order season, but Ramsden feels with shorter backlogs in the market, some fleets will wait till closer to the end of this year before placing their orders.
“Definitely, we’re having that conversation about replacement [orders],” Ramsden said. “A lot of fleets have skipped it for two, probably three years now, or reduced levels to maybe 20-30% of what they would normally order. We’re starting to see people are beginning to realize their equipment’s getting older and the cost to maintain them is starting to increase. We know price increases are coming on the tariff side of things, so there are some people trying to jump ahead of those and get ahead of the game.”
Pre-tariff inventory is pretty much sold out, he added, meaning cost increases are coming as tariffs take effect. Ramsden said Manac is well positioned, with plants in both Canada and the U.S.
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