There are plenty of people with an interest in motorcycles. But few can match our leader, Glenn Turple’s passion for the two wheelers. The 75-year-old has accumulated 1,260,000 km aboard a long list of bikes over the years, and continues to average some 25,000 km annually. He’s also helped put motorcycles under many other people during a retail career scanning 55 years.
The longevity of our business is better appreciated when you consider the number of competitors that have opened since he moved here in 1956: 34 motorcycle dealers and 74 snowmobile outlets, by Glenn’s count.
Today operated by Glenn, his son Gordon and daughter Brenda Neufeld, and their partner Terry Morris Sr. The business was started by Glenn and his younger brother Rex in 1949. Glenn was more of the front end guy with Rex working on the machines in the background. Glenn has been known as the cruiser guy while Rex was more into the sport side with racing. He enjoyed motocross, hill climbing as well as flat track racing and anything he could get into. Rex had a home full of trophies and a strong following of young riders who wanted to follow in his foot steps. Unfortunately we lost Rex to cancer in 1990.
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Glenn and Rex were born at Cereal Alberta, but spent much of their childhoods on a farm near Olds. It was Glenn who bought a used Harley Davidson when he completed high school in 1946. Soon after, he and Rex combined resources and ordered a Panther motorcycle from England. Glenn relinquished his interest in the Panther the following year and bought an Ariel, which he in turn traded for Triumph. “It was just an interest in some economical transportation,” he said of his wheeling and dealing. “It didn’t start as being a business, that’s for sure.” Glenn and Rex’s father tolerated the brothers’ preoccupation with motorcycles, assuming it would be temporary. “He thought he might as well let us do it and get it out of our system.”
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By 1949, Glenn and Rex were operating Olds Motorcycle Sales from the family farm. Seven years later they relocated to Red Deer; hoping to take advantage of the bigger market. “Red Deer was a booming city of 13,000,” said Glenn, adding their Gaetz Avenue location put them on what was then the Calgary-Edmonton highway.
During the next 44 years, Turple Bros. underwent 17 additions and renovations. We initially dealt in British and German bikes, but had an active trade in old Harley Davidsons as well.
In 1959 the brothers obtained the rights to sell Honda products. They added Suzuki in 1988. Ski-Doo snowmobiles arrived on the scene in 1965. Honda ATVs followed around 1970, said Glenn, who was a little skeptical about these strange vehicles. “It was just an oddity to us at the time.
The big step came in 2000 when Turple Bros. left its patchwork building in Red Deer in favour of a new 46,000-square-foot facility on Gasoline Alley.
Despite some anxiety about this hefty investment, Glenn said the decision to move to larger, more visible premised was a good one. “We’ve had to work a lot harder since we went out there because we’ve had a lot more business.”
Another landmark even in 2000 was Turple Bros. being named the Red Deer Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Year in the large business category. We believe careful spending practices have been important to his business’s success. Plenty of sweat also went into the company over the years. “We worked some terrible hours,” remembered Glenn, who used to average 60 hours a week. Fairness and honesty have been important to the growth of Turple Bros. as well as these should be key ingredients for any business. And it helps to have a genuine interest in the product you sell as Glenn does.“Some do reasonably well without it, but I guess I really enjoyed the use of the product.” “It definitely helps create enthusiasm when you’re interested. We also credit Central Alberta’s surging economy for much of his business’s prosperity over the years. It’s a great area to be in. Now dealing with the grandchildren of former customers, Glenn doesn’t appear ready to walk away from the world of motorcycles. Last year he put more than 31,000 km onto his Honda Goldwing, and he still works 37 hours a week.
