Trailers have hitches, ownership change doesn’t at Tom’s Equipment
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Gayle and Tom Rukavina, their daughter and son-in-law, Amy and Jason Friend, and dog Max are taking care of business at Tom’s Equipment.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Trailers are among the variety of stock at Tom’s Equipment in Hickory.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
A shop, offices and four service bays operate in the Tom’s Equipment building, located near the home of the outgoing owners, Tom and Gayle Rukavina.
Tom’s Equipment is a small business that has become a big success. It also is a family business that will remain one.
Gayle and Tom Rukavina started this enterprise in the garage of their Hickory home 29 years ago, when they sold a small piece of equipment, then a few other items, including a trailer. Gayle had an inspiration that they could make a living off this, and after investing a large share of their savings, the couple persuaded an Ohio manufacturer to supply them with equipment they could sell.
“At first, we were scared,” Gayle said. “But we were too busy to think much about that. We were working day and night. But we had a feeling that we’d do well and – as it turns out – we’ve never, ever had a bad year.”
Tom’s Equipment is as sturdy as the trailers it sells. Located on a hill overlooking Route 18, the business operates from a shop the Rukavinas built about 50 yards from the house where they raised three daughters. Trailers are their trademark item, but they also stock trailer parts, farm equipment, hitches and specialty equipment.
Tom and Gayle still embrace the business they have birthed, nurtured and sustained in Mt. Pleasant Township – where they regard numerous customers as friends. But after nearly three decades as co-owners, they want to ease up, so they are turning over the operation to a couple of friends.
Make that Friends.
Amy and Jason Friend, the Rukavinas’ daughter and son-in-law, will assume ownership Jan. 1. By doing so, they are harkening back to a tradition that has greatly diminished over time: keeping a family business in the family.
The timing, however, was right for them. As recently as six months ago, the Friends were living in Southern California, where their lone child, 12-year-old Ava, had had corrective surgery for scoliosis. Jason, who grew up in Wolfdale, and Amy thought that returning to their roots might be prudent for the three of them, and when they heard that Tom and Gayle were pondering a reduced workload, the gears started to whir.
“I texted Gayle while we were in Mexico,” said Jason, who had a job selling motor oil in the Golden State. “I said, ‘Don’t do anything rash,’ and we talked. Amy and I decided that (moving) would be a good thing for our daughter. There’s no place like home.”
So the three returned to Washington County in June and joined the company. Seven months later, they will own a business with an experienced staff of nine – headed by their predecessors. Gayle and Tom will continue working in the office.
“I’ll never retire,” said Tom, who was raised in Shinnston, W.Va. Smiling slyly, he added, “I’m going to do what I want to do, when I want to do it.”
“We want to slow down, but we can’t,” said Gayle, a native of Sheraden in Pittsburgh’s West End. “I absolutely love what we do here.”
That wasn’t the mindset initially. There was a healthy measure of trepidation after Tom’s Equipment launched in December 1989. Tom already had a full-time job and Gayle was tending to the girls. One day, he acquired a piece of equipment and asked her to display it to would-be customers. Someone bought it. Then they sold a trailer and a few more items.
Gayle had this epiphany: “I looked out the dining room window and said, ‘I think we can sell equipment here.’ Tom said, ‘Go bake a cake, take a nap.’ He said I’d change my mind … but I didn’t.”
She contacted a manufacturer in Cincinnati about buying equipment they could sell and had $25,000. That was about half of what he was seeking, but the man said he was willing to meet them at his factory five hours away.
“He said because we offered all our savings, we showed we had passion,” Gayle said. “So he sent $50,000 worth of equipment.”
That was a fortuitous move, for the manufacturer and the Rukavinas. The couple needed a heavy-duty lift and crane, but purchased them and were on the verge of being in business with their business.
They worked out of their house at first, converting half of their double garage into an office. “We had people standing in line outside,” Gayle said. “Mel Blount (the Steelers’ Hall of Famer) came in and had to bend over to get inside.”
Eventually, the owners moved Tom’s Equipment into a complex they built on their 12-acre plot. And the business continued to percolate. Amy, the oldest Rukavina daughter, ended up providing a valuable – and a somewhat unexpected – boost.
“We were working so much and needed help,” Gayle said. “We asked her to do something. She ended up working here for 21 years.”
Smiling, Amy recalled saying on her first day, “‘Mom, I know nothing about this. I have no interest in this.’
“I was graduating from high school at the time. But we were raised to work hard and to help. I’d be talking about shutting down and taking vacations, but she said, ‘No. There are semis backed up onto the road (Route 18). We can’t shut down.'”
Amy, who now lives in Canonsburg, did a variety of jobs, including delivery driver throughout the tri-state. Trailer sales ultimately became her specialty.
Now she is back, with 21 years of experience, well-versed in the company – one she now partly owns
“It’s nice to keep this in the family,” Jason Friend said.