Bush Brothers company history

Bush Brothers Inc. was founded in 1995 by Mark and Paul Bush. While living out of his pick up truck tinting windows on largecars behind the Pilot in Casa Grande, Az. Mark drew his first tee shirt design, The American Chicken Haulers Association. A drawing that featured a crusty ol rooster standing in front of a peckerbilt largecar. By the grace of God and the support of truckers, the tee shirt became a hit in the trucking industry. Mark began to
design more tee shirts and was able to open a small 10' X 10' tee shirt / knife shop in the Belmont Travel Center on I-40 west of Flagstaff Az. in may of 1995.

By 1997 the tee shirts had grown in popularity and Mark was asked by the manager of the Giant Travel Center on I-40 in New Mexico if he would open a shop inside the Giant. Mark moved to NM and Paul, who had left his job with the city of Mesa took over the Belmont location and the Kingman Az. location in the Petro. For the first few years the shop located in the Giant went under the name, Fireside Gifts ( a name created by the manager of Giant ). The shop was a 20' X 15' glass inclosed room that was filled to the brim with truckin tee shirts. It was the hay day of the owner operator and the American Chicken Hauler, Bull Hauler and Freight Hauler tee shirts. The tee shirt sells were not only providing a living for us, but were also supporting some very needy children charities. Life was good.

A few years later all hell broke loose. Fuel prices climbed, drivers were forced to cut back on spending and Giant saw an over night loss of 80% of it's customers because of the openning of the Sky City casino/truckstop down
the road. For a couple years it looked like the end was near. Savings had been spent just keeping the shop openned and Giant had the travel center up for sell because they just couldn't compete with the 2 casino truckstops down the road. Owners and CEOs from all of the major travel center chains began touring the travel center trying to decide if they should buy the now sinking Giant. The Bush brothers were instructed that they should be ready to remove thier inventory and close the doors to the shop when and if someone stepped up and bought the place.

The light at the end of the tunnel came after meeting with Jimmy, the owner of Pilot who had just bought the Giant travel center. Big business becomes big business a lot of times by destroying the competion. In most cases the
competion is a small family owned business. Happens everyday in this country and most folks in the corporate world would think a president or CEO of a large company would be crazy if they didn't step on competion or take over a retail shop that would increase thier bottom line. Pilot doesn't work that way. Pilot began as a very small family owned business, and has grown into the strongest and largest travel center chain through family values,
fairness, and just plain hard work. It cares about it's employees, customers and believe it or not about the drivers.

During the Pilot remodel the name of the shop changed from fireside Gifts to I.B. Bubba's gift shop. The size of the shop was increased by Jimmy to allow The Bush family to grow thier business and help recoupe the losses from
thier savings. Mark is now producing DVDs that feature tractor trailer show trucks, designing tee shirts and is working on some new products that will be introduced next year. Paul has opened a new knife shop inside the Petro stopping center on I-40 exit 79 in Milan ,NM. LIfe is good.

May God bless you and yours, the Bush family