Modern Group: Reaching Its Niche With Tree & Landscape Equipment Trader

Any company that stays in business for nearly 80 years is doing something right, and when the word “modern” is in your company name, you have to be up on the latest resources. Modern Group was founded in 1946 as a forklift dealer. Through a series of acquisitions over the years, the company added power, construction, and arbor equipment to its portfolio and grew to have eight locations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. That success has come from knowing the industry and understanding customers’ needs.

“We’re not just a forklift dealer anymore, and we have a large number of brands that we actively sell for, which makes us pretty unique,” says Skylar Althouse, marketing coordinator for Modern Group. “Often, dealers can only have a couple of brands at a time, but we have many. And we’ve been around for a long time, so we know the industry.”

Today, Modern Group’s three divisions operate independently, and its Equipment and Supplies (E&S) division, which covers construction and arbor equipment, is now the No. 1 Bandit distributor in the country. Modern isn’t just a Bandit dealer. It also carries equipment from CMC, Generac, Giant, Hyundai, and Kalmar.

Strategic Advertising

Modern is a long-time advertiser in Tree & Landscape Equipment Trader magazine and reports that the platform consistently gives them good leads. “Our industry is very niche,” Althouse explains. “You’re not going on to TreeTrader.com unless you’re actively using and need to buy that equipment. It gets our customer base really well, and we know that they are seeing our ads because we see the call stats and web stats.”

The company doesn’t stop with magazine ads and online listings. It also uses email blasts sent every two weeks to highlight inventory. Althouse consults with the sales staff to see which pieces they want to include to keep assets from sitting for too long. “Often it is used equipment, but we throw in new equipment sometimes as well,” she says. “We’ve been getting good results. It definitely helps move our used equipment.”

An All-In-One Website

Last year, Modern Group had Sandhills Global redesign its website, ModernGroup.com. The website not only provides the company's public face to the world online but also is tailored to their business and streamlines their backend work. 

“Sandhills does a lot for us,” Althouse says. “It’s a beautiful website. I love the portal they made for us. In addition to Tree & Landscape Trader, we advertise in ForestryTrader, Machinery Trader, and LiftsToday, and we can see all the call statistics, web stats, leads, and everything for all of those. Our rep, Joey Koch, has been super helpful, too. Overall, we have a pretty good relationship with Sandhills.”

To Continued Success

Modern Group recently opened a new location to serve its customers in southern New Jersey, which Althouse says gives customers a closer location for any repair needs. “We hope to see that location grow a little bit more,” she says. “If things go well enough, maybe we will open even more locations. That’s something we always look towards, but we’re doing great in our territory, and the future is looking good.”