For the Long Haul: Trailers of the East Coast Celebrates 80 Years in Business

A pillar of the Mocksville, NC community, Trailers of the East Coast (TOEC) will celebrate 80 years in business this month. Since 1945 and through four generations, the Junker family has been serving the Mocksville community and beyond. Beginning in 1945 with Ted Junker’s “Junker Bros. Hardware” store located off Salisbury Street and evolving in 1965 to a feed mill business, “Junker & Son Feed Mill.” In 1985, the family began selling trailers and by 1996 they had expanded to their current 12-acre dealership located directly off I-40.

As a specialized transportation dealership, Trailers of the East Coast serves customers from all over the world. They take pride in carrying only the highest quality manufacturers of nearly every type of trailer imaginable as well as Class C motorhomes. In addition, their experienced sales team assists corporate clients such as Coca-Cola, Verizon and Samaritan’s Purse with custom designing trailers used for mobile command centers, emergency response, training and simulators and mobile marketing. Since 1990, TOEC has been the leading provider of transporter services in North Carolina for the majority of the NASCAR and motorsports teams headquartered throughout the Southeast. In 2023, TOEC became a trusted and reliable partner for high-end transporter solutions by forming a partnership to become a dealer for Evolve Transporters, a new line of cutting-edge race car transporters. The dealership also includes a fully-equipped service, parts and graphics department to assist customers with all their trailering needs.

What's the secret to 80 years of success?

As the family-owned business continues to grow and evolve, what they sell has changed over the 80 years they have been in business, but how they sell it has never changed or wavered. Current Trailers of the East Coast President, Bill Junker, shared the “simple” generational lesson passed down from his father and founder that lies at the heart of their 80 years of success.

“It’s simple,” said Bill Junker. “You give people a good product or service at a fair price and you stand behind it and you do what you say you will do. One of the things my dad bestowed on me was watching him take so much pride in the community. Everything he sold was a relationship with that person. He felt obligated that each person would not be disappointed in the product he sold them. That is something we take great pride in. The people that trust us and do business with us, whether it be sales or service; I promise you, you are going to be pleased. We are there for the long haul and we are just so excited about what the future holds.”

Trailers of the East Coast continues to carry on their mantra and passion for taking care of each customer like a friend and treating their team of nearly 50 employees like family. The TOEC team has over 476 years of combined experience with 11 employees who have been with the company for over 20 years and 17 employees over 10 years. With nearly all their employees being local Davie County residents and over 60% of their customers residing locally, the economic impact Trailers of the East Coast has had within Mocksville over 80 years remains strong.

“For eight decades the Junker family business has grown and served the Davie County community and beyond with superior customer relationships and commitment to customer satisfaction no matter what products they were selling,” said Terry Bralley, Davie County Economic Development Commission President. “Like most all successful businesses, they were always looking ahead and were able to change with the times. In a small community, we all spend a lifetime developing a reputation of doing what we say. Their good fortune didn’t happen accidentally. It took hard work, sacrifices, many prayers, never taking no for an answer, and years of doing the right things to make all this happen. We are blessed in Davie County to live in a place where dreams really do come true.”

Looking Ahead and Giving Back

The Trailers of the East Coast team plans to celebrate their 80^th Anniversary in the most family-oriented and humble way as their beginnings would suggest; with a good old fashioned company picnic and barbecue for their employees’ families at Bill Junker’s home. They also commemorated their anniversary with a donation to the Dragonfly House Children’s Advocacy Center located in Mocksville to celebrate this company milestone and continue to give back to the community that has supported them for 80 years.

“I am just so proud of our accomplishments as a company in 80 years,” said Bill Junker. “The community, my family and our many partners and employees have always been there supporting us. The structure and foundation we have built under us has truly become our launch pad toward a bright future in the years to come. As I sit here today in my office, I have never been prouder and more excited with the vision and future of TOEC. God has blessed us tremendously, but I always say, our biggest blessing is our family of employees.”