Foster Coach Sales, Inc. - News and Views

FOSTER COACH SALES, INC IS GROWING TO SERVE YOU BETTER

The new Foster Coach building at 903 Prosperity Drive in Sterling, Illinois.

Steve Foster, President of Foster Coach Sales, Inc. of Sterling, Illinois, is proud to announce the construction of two new facilities for Rock River Auto Body, Inc. and Foster Coach Sales, Inc. Both new buildings and business operations are situated on about 2.5 acres, approximately one half mile west of the present Foster Coach facility in Sterling’s Meadowlands Business Park.

	3 Prep Stations

Owned by Steve Foster, Rock River Auto Body, Inc. opened its new facility in mid-December 2010. The 8,000 square foot body shop features a 45 foot long down draft paint/spray/bake booth. The air make up unit can take the room temperature from 70 to 140 degrees in one minute and a half. In addition, the shop has in floor heat and air conditioning for climate control.

“The booth is the largest and most modern booth in a 45 mile radius,” remarked Steve Foster, owner of Rock River Auto Body, Inc. and President of Foster Coach Sales, Inc. “This is truly a state of the art facility, which should give our technicians a chance to expand an already growing and successful business.”

Paint Booth

Foster Coach Sales, Inc. has outgrown its old facilities as well. Despite a down economy, Foster Coach Sales, Inc. has experienced continued growth at 10 percent in each of the last two years. Therefore, we’ve decided to build a new facility in conjunction with the body shop which is located across a shared parking lot. Total work and storage area will be 16,000 square feet, while offices will comprise another 2,600 square feet.

The new building is also home to our new in house graphics department for lettering. Shawn Foster, Steve’s middle son, is in charge of graphics. He also does custom design work for logos and designs to department specifications, as well as installing chevrons on the back of units.

	45' Paint Booth

While the timing seems bad to expand, it makes sense for us to move out of retrofit facilities that we have simply outgrown. We’ve been in our current building since 1982. It was originally a grocery store and was never meant to be a specialty vehicle service facility.

“Our continued growth dictated we do something. It is a commitment to our customers that drives us to bigger and better things,” said Foster. “The customer support and loyalty of our employees has been phenomenal over the years. We are poised to move forward with the third generation of a family business: Growing To Serve You Better.”

NEWS RELEASE



Click to visit the Marque...

In an effort to better serve our customers, Foster Coach Sales, Inc. is proud to announce that we have added a new product line to our existing offering. In addition to Medtec Ambulances, we are now also a dealer for Marque Ambulance and will be servicing Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Missouri.

This product line will compliment our existing Medtec line and give our customers a wider choice of products with the same great Foster Coach service after the sale.

Based in Elkhart, Indiana, Marque Ambulance is located in the center of the manufactured housing industry in the United States. This provides quick access to many high quality vendors that serve the manufacturing industry. The Marque product line includes standard custom Type I and Type III modular ambulances, and the Type II. While many customers are drawn to the “functionality” of their more standard units, Marque is equally capable of meeting the most demanding specifications for fully customized vehicles.

Please contact us with any questions about Marque Ambulance via our toll free number at 1-800-369-4215. We are sure you will find the Marque product and our service worthy of your business.

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AMBULANCE RESCUE 33 PURCHASE FROM THE THIRD GENERATION OF FOSTER'S

Ron Hedden and Dave Wiley have been with Ambulance Rescue 33 of Chillicothe, Illinois since 1974 and 1981 respectively. They operated a station wagon style ambulance when they first started. Just before Ron joined, they purchased their first custom ambulance, a Wayne Chevrolet Vanguard from Floyd Foster in 1972. Since then they have purchased numerous units—two more from Floyd and too many to remember from Steve Foster. Recently, the two purchased a new unit from Andrew Foster, the third generation of Foster’s. We want to thank them for their purchases.

They continue to run an all volunteer service that operates at the “B” level, and continue to do so in hard times with a great core of personnel.

Ambulance Rescue 33 is an all volunteer organization in Chillicothe, IL founded in 1966 and Incorporated in 1968. It funds itself thru private donations, memorials and their annual “Donut Sale” when they sell upward of 5600 dozen donuts —yes, that was dozen—in a town of about 5800 people. They usually make around $30,000.00 each time they do it. It is truly a community affair and they get a lot of support from the local families and businesses. They are truly a unique group, as they do not charge for their services and still manage to survive. Their dedication and professionalism makes them one of our favorite customers! Each time they have a donut sale, Dave will call us and have us leave an old ambulance outside up front, unlocked. The next morning we come in at 6AM and there is usually 16 dozen in the back for our “shop” guys. Dave has delivered them in the middle of the night, after staying up helping to cook, frost and package them.

We salute Ambulance Rescue 33 as one of the many favorite customers here at Foster Coach for their constant commitment to make it a NO CHARGE ambulance service!