Founded in 1914 by brothers Goodloe and Earle Yancey, Yancey Bros. Co. began as the Yancey Hardware Company, selling hardware, picks, shovels and prison uniforms (stripes) to government agencies - especially county prisons - for road construction. From their Peachtree Street location in downtown Atlanta, the brothers became the first dealer in the United States for the Adams Mule Grader, a predecessor of today’s motorgrader which was pulled by eight mules.
Early successes brought expansion into a new location on Marietta Street and branch offices in Birmingham, Alabama, Ft. Pierce, Florida, and Greenville, South Carolina.
Establishment of the Nation’s First Caterpillar Dealership In 1918, the Holt Manufacturing Company of Peoria, IL boasted that its model 45 tractor could do the work of, “40 mules . . . or 40 horses and countless humans.” Goodloe and Earle traveled to Peoria to ask Holt if they could represent the product in the southeastern United States. Holt preferred direct sales to end users and questioned the need for local distribution, preferring to target sales to the United States Army. Unable to secure a demonstration tractor, Goodloe and Earle left Peoria with only a photograph of the Holt Model 45 and a price quote of $4,750 per machine.
Yancey’s first Model 45 sale came later that year to Troup County, Georgia. Within 12 months Yancey had sold all of the Model 45’s in Holt’s inventory, using only a single photograph. When Goodloe and Earle returned to the Holt factory in Peoria the following year, they were given Holt’s first jobber’s contract, and a higher commission than initially promised.
In 1925 Holt merged with Best Tractor Co. to become the Caterpillar Tractor Company, now the world’s largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment. Records at Caterpillar’s corporate offices in Peoria indicate that, based on the original agreement date of December 19, 1918, “Yancey is the dealer with whom Caterpillar and its predecessor companies have had the longest business association.” Thus, Yancey Bros. Co. is proud to claim the title of, “The Nation’s Oldest Caterpillar Dealer.”
Growth to Keep Up with a Growing State In 1924, the brothers established their new headquarters in downtown Atlanta. With the move came a name change to Yancey Bros., Inc. and a reduction in territory from four southeastern states (Georgia, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina) with Holt to Georgia only with Caterpillar.
In 1927 the brothers split the territory with Goodloe operating the company for the 83 counties in the northern half of the state as Yancey Bros., Inc., and Earle operating out of Albany as the Yancey Tractor Company for the southern half of Georgia. Joining Earle in Albany as General Manager of his company was another brother, L.D. Yancey, the father of a future generation of Yancey brothers, Don and Goodloe III.
In 1947, while Earle Yancey’s family finalized the sale of the Yancey Tractor Company in the south, business continued to grow in the north. Yancey Bros. opened its first full-service product support branch in Augusta and adopted the current name of Yancey Bros. Co. Four years later Yancey Bros. Co. relocated to a 12-acre site at 1540 Northside Drive in Atlanta. In 1957 the company opened its second full-service product support branch in Macon.
The Second Generation of Yancey Leadership Don A. Yancey, a nephew of Goodloe, began his career in 1936 working for Earle and his father, L.D., as a salesman with the Yancey Tractor Co. in Albany. After serving as a Major in the U.S. Army during World War II, Don joined Goodloe at Yancey Bros. Co. in 1946 as a salesman and later as branch manager of the Augusta branch. He became President of the company in 1959. In 1969, the company relocated again to its current corporate headquarters in Austell, four miles outside Atlanta’s I-285 perimeter highway. Yancey’s new facilities gave the company room for expansion and growth into the next century.
The Third Generation of Yancey Leadership In 1974, Goodloe H. Yancey III assumed the presidency of the company upon the retirement of his older brother, Don. Goodloe III had joined Yancey Bros. Co. twenty years earlier as a sales trainee after serving as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. Between 1954 and 1965, Goodloe III worked as a mechanic’s helper, a parts warehouse order picker and a parts counter salesman. He also worked as one of the company’s first Parts and Service Sales Representatives, as a Machine Sales Representative, as Sales Coordinator and later as Sales Promotion Manager. Goodloe III became Vice-President of the company in 1966 and Executive Vice-President and General Manager in 1972.
Under Goodloe’s leadership, the company opened its existing branches in Calhoun, Gwinnett County and Columbus, and its first full-service truck engine support branch. In 1984, the company acquired the Grissom-Harrison Corporation, a mining and aggregates equipment and support distributor. Three years later, the company formed Sunbelt Power Systems, now known as Yancey Power Systems, to provide truck engine support and electric power generator sales and service. In 1994, Yancey Power Systems opened a new branch at the intersection of Moreland Avenue and I-285 to meet the demand of the trucking industry and to serve as the primary parts warehouse for Yancey Power.
The Fourth Generation of Yancey Leadership In 1994, the fourth generation of family leadership joined Yancey Bros. Co., when Jim and Donna Yancey Stephenson, son-in-law and daughter to Yancey’s former president, Don Yancey, agreed to become the company’s primary stockholders. Jim was named President and Chief Executive Officer in September of 1995. The Stephenson’s completed their purchase of the company in February of 1996 and assumed the responsibility of leading “The Nation’s Oldest Caterpillar Dealer” into its tenth decade of service to the northern half of Georgia.
A Focus on Serving Our CustomersUnder Jim’s guidance the company continued to expand its current operations and ventured into new growth opportunities.
“The Cat Rental Store” opened in 1997 and continues to provide Caterpillar’s full line of construction and building equipment to customers with daily, weekly and monthly rental options. The Cat Rental Store also sells and rents a large menu of non-Caterpillar equipment, ranging from dump trucks to aerial lifts.
In 2002, Yancey Bros. Co. reunited north and south Georgia under a single Caterpillar dealer with the purchase of certain operating assets of Carlton Co., the Caterpillar dealer in the southern half of the state, becoming the exclusive Caterpillar equipment and power systems dealer for Georgia once again.
In 2005, Yancey Power Systems established an operation in Griffin to provide specialized services to customers purchasing power units from Caterpillar’s Griffin Engine manufacturing facility. Rebranded in 2008 as “Yancey Engineered Solutions”, this business serves customers around the globe as a supplier of sound-attenuated packaging, testing and design solutions and engineering services for most makes and models of power generation units.
In 2007, Blue Bird Bus Corporation announced Yancey as their exclusive dealer for school bus sales, OEM parts and factory-supported service for Georgia and Alabama. Yancey Bus Sales and Service provides an extensive line of parts and aftermarket services for school buses of all makes and models, including Carrier air conditioning for school buses.
In 2008, Yancey was one of five southeastern Caterpillar dealers to purchase certain assets of Pioneer Machinery, adding forestry and recycling equipment to the list of products offered in Georgia. In addition to adding the full line of Caterpillar forest products and Peterson processing equipment, the Pioneer acquisition brought additional service centers in Statesboro, Washington and Waycross.
In 2009, the company purchased operating assets of two International Trucks dealerships in southern Georgia and now operates these businesses under the banner of Yancey Truck Centers. This business has sales, parts and service locations in Albany, Tifton, Blackshear and Valdosta.
Later in 2009 Yancey Bros. Co. completed a reorganization to improve expertise in key market segments and better serve customers. These changes focus Yancey’s resources into two divisions. Yancey’s Machine Division provides products and services to the Aggregates, Industrial, Mining, Governmental, Waste, Construction, Forestry and Road Construction Industries. Yancey’s Engine Division serves the Electric Power, Marine, Industrial and Transportation Industries.
Helping Our Customers Succeed . . . From the Appalachians to the Atlantic Today, Goodloe Yancey III continues to serve the company as Chairman of the Board while Jim Stephenson provides leadership as President and Chief Executive Officer. Along with over 800 employees, they continue the legacy begun in 1914 by Earle and Goodloe Yancey of providing outstanding customer service.
Yancey Bros. Co. remains committed to learning more about its customers, offering equipment and support to keep up with their changing needs. Harmon S. Eberhard, the President of Caterpillar, Inc., wrote to Mr. Goodloe in 1958 with these words, “through these years, Yancey Bros. Co. has succeeded admirably in balancing its record of ‘seniority’ with an equally fine record of aggressiveness, vigor and growth -- qualities often associated with a younger organization. If I could define in a few words the job awaiting the future generations of Yancey Bros. Co., I believe it is just that: to continue to combine the wisdom that comes from long experience in this business with a willingness to change and progress in keeping with the challenge of the future’s markets.” These words remain as true today as they did over fifty years ago.
“We are extremely proud of our past and the role we have played in building the Georgia we know today,” states Chairman Goodloe H. Yancey III. “We want to keep our focus on the future. The challenges of the past have already been met. We are looking for ways to keep our customers productive, competitive and successful into their next generation.”