Mack Trucks history

Pleased with its product, the tourism company ordered a second bus in 1901.

With these two orders, the company became firmly entrenched, and the brothers incorporated the company in 1902.

Hence, in 1905 they opened a second assembly plant in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Mack’s first truck was manufactured in 1907.

By 1911, the Allentown factory had grown to employ approximately 700 people.

Kenworth began a business in 1912, Freightliner was developed in t

In 1918 they became the first manufacturer to apply air cleaners and oil filters to their trucks.

In 1920 became the first truck with power brakes.

In 1922, “Mack Brothers Company” changed its name to Mack Trucks and the bulldog was accepted as the company’s corporate Logo.

The Allentown plant, built in 1926, was so old that trucks were still spray-painted by hand.

1932 - Early in 1932, Alfred Fellows Masury, Mack's Chief Engineer, was admitted to the hospital for an operation.

1933 - A year of growth and building in America, and Mack Trucks, Inc. played a major role, including the building of Boulder Dam!

The Mack E series, introduced in 1936, were streamlined, medium-duty trucks with gross vehicle weight ratings ranging up to 23,000 lbs.

In 1940 Mack sales hit $44 million on domestic deliveries of 7,754 units, with a net profit of $1.8 million.

In one of their most impressive moves, two Mack trucks hauled the body of a DC-3 transport aircraft from Houston to Dallas in May 1943.

In 1952 the manufacturer again reversed its fortunes by introducing the best-selling "B" series.

Another major innovation was the END 673 "Thermodyne" diesel engine which was introduced in 1953 and featured direct fuel injection, allowing for greater power (170 horsepower) and reliability.

In part because of this initiative, gross sales of Mack trucks soared to a quarter of a billion dollars in 1956, with a net profit of more than $12 million.

In 1959, net profits again reached a new high of $15.8 million.

In 1965, after decades of continued growth, Mack announced that its corporate headquarters would move to Allentown in order to be closer to the main assembly plant.

By the time the "B" series was discontinued in 1966 approximately 127,000 models had been sold.

These reforms helped Mack improve its financial situation by 1967.

Construction of a new Mack World Headquarters building began, and on April 28, 1970, it officially opened.

It did introduce an air-to-air intercooled diesel engine in 1973, the ENDT 676 "Maxidyne," which featured 285 horsepower, 1,080 pound/feet of torque.

In 1979 the company entered into an agreement with French manufacturer Renault.

To cope with these problems the new president, John Curcio, persuaded the French auto manufacturer Renault to purchase 41 percent of Mack from Signal for $228 million in 1983.

Although the company briefly returned to profitability in 1984, the losses were indicative of a general downturn that would continue to affect the industry for years to come.

But a write-off on the antiquated Allentown plant led to $58 million in losses during 1985.

In January 1986, after posting a net loss of nearly $65 million for the third quarter of the previous year, Mack announced that it would close its Allentown plant.

Four years later, in 1990, Mack became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renault.

In 1993, when Mack lost $64 million on revenues of $1.7 billion, the United States heavy-duty truck industry recorded its greatest sales volume in the previous 15 years, engendering sizeable profit totals for many of the industry's largest players.

These changes eventually helped the company returned to profitability in 1994.

The market for Class 8 trucks was in a slump in 1995, declining more than 15 percent, but Mack held its own and gained some ground.

By the end of 1998, Mack recorded six straight years of market growth – becoming the only United States heavy-duty truck manufacturer to do so at the time.

In 2000, as Mack celebrated its 100th anniversary, Swedish manufacturer AB Volvo acquired the company – a move that led to many major changes in the Lehigh Valley.

In 2009, Mack’s corporate headquarters, along with all the operations that had been performed in the Engineering Development and Test Center facility, moved to Volvo’s campus in Greensboro, North Carolina.