Blog Detail PageNew Lift Shop Rocks Car Nostalgia

Larry Beyler’s shop in southern Wisconsin is more than a sales and service center; it’s almost a museum. The Midwest Equipment Specialists Inc. facility in McFarland boasts 25 neon signs, vintage gas pumps, several classic cars, and an assortment of vehicle lifts.

The office looks like an old house and the conference room looks like an old-timey general store, complete with rocking chairs, dynamite boxes, and moonshine bottles.

Inside Midwest Equipment Specialists

The place is so inviting that customers and passers-by tend to linger, sipping coffee and talking shop, as if they were literally transported back to the 1950s or 60s.

“It turned out better than I expected and everyone loves it,” Beyler said of his new shop, which is still getting a few final touches after about nine months of construction. The previous tenant was a hardware store, although Beyler owns the building.

Beyler has been in business for more than three decades, providing a range of vehicle maintenance services, from tire changers to break lathes, wheel balances, and air conditioning equipment.

But what has him most excited is selling and servicing Stertil-Koni heavy duty lifts.That business has been booming, tripling in just the past three years.

“Stertil-Koni makes an excellent product and is an excellent company, and we’re doing really well with it,” said Beyler, shown right in the photograph with his wife.

Over the past few years, Midwest Equipment has worked on some big orders for Janesville Transit and Jefferson and Walworth Counties, and the customer base keeps growing.

“Midwest Equipment’s big efforts to take care of their customers have helped them really grow their territory the past few years,” saidJim Sylvester, vice president of sales for Stertil-Koni.

With more space than their previous location across town, Beyler’s team now has more room to showcase Stertil-Koni’s industry-leading line of products, from mobile column lifts to inground systems. There’s plenty of room for demonstrations and training, and customers can try the products without worrying about the vagaries of Midwestern weather.

The demonstration garage bay in the space also helps customers visualize precisely how the lifts will fit and work in their own shops.

When the team needs to take a demonstration on the road, they have their own trailer.

Beyler started in the automotive industry when he was 15, when he pumped gas at a Shell station for 95 cents an hour. After a few years, he bought his own station. He’s never looked back.

“A lot of our customers are also car people, so they fit right in here,” he said of his new shop.