NATDA Magazine May/Jun 2020 | Page 28

“My granddad was a cowboy and he loved to rope.” It’s not the usual start to the history of a trailer manufacturer, but an applicable one for W-W Trailer MFG. “Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, he built a trailer to haul his horse to the rodeos. One day, someone asked if they could buy his custom trailer, so he sold it and built another one. It only grew from there,” shared Dustin Watkins, owner of W-W Trailer MFG. In Madill, OK, the company sits on a piece of land just off of the Red River, where its 550,000 square-foot production and prefabrication space produces cargo, dump, horse, stock and utility lines. “I’m a rancher myself,” Watkins said of his additional duties. “I raise cattle. I wouldn’t use any other product. All the trailers used on my ranch are products of my own company.” Though that’s to be expected from the owner of a trailer manufacturing business, it’s especially meaningful when considered next to the blue-collar, hard-working background of the company. Its products are fine-tuned and ready to “get to work” as soon as they leave the lot. Currently, that equates to nearly 2,000 steel and 300 aluminum trailers annually that are bringing a broncobusting mentality to the workplace. With a current dealer network spanning from the Grand Canyon to the Mississippi River, Watkins says his current dealer partners are people who’ve been with and understood the brand for many years. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for growth. “We have a good dealer base established, but we think our products appeal to a newer generation of dealership owners and managers, too,” Watkins explained. 28 NATDA Magazine www.natda.org