Lebanon Electric Supply store owner Tom Carter said he was running delivery trucks to Middletown two or three times a day back in the early 1970s, which led him to open a Middletown location in 1976.

The Middletown Electric Supply store at 6700 Trenton-Franklin Road has been going strong for the last 36 years, according to Carter, who is a Middletown native.

“We came here because we knew we could have a good business here,” said Carter, who went to work for Clifford Stewart at the Lebanon store in 1965.

Carter said Stewart was killed in a plane crash, however, and he eventually bought the business from Stewart’s widow.

At first, he rented the original 9,000-square-foot building where Middletown Electric Supply is located. A 6,000-square-foot addition was built later.

While the business has a showroom with plenty of lighting products on display, it is the supply side of the business with different types of electrical equipment that keeps it going.

“Electricians are our main business and we enjoy supplying them,” said Jeff Peck, general manager of the Middletown store. He began as a delivery truck driver in 1976, eventually becoming general manager in 1985.

“Tom started as a truck driver too,” Peck said. “I went to truck driving school and tried a few other jobs, but once I came here I never looked back.”

And just like every other business, technological advancements have played a huge role in sustaining the company’s success.

“We’ve come a long way in technology,” Peck said. “We’ve had three computer systems here, and we’re still progressing, but you have to have them to stay competitive.”

The Lebanon and Middletown stores each supply a 60-mile radius around them, Carter said. There has been talk in the past of opening a third location, but nothing is set in stone.

“We’ve had people ask us to, but I think we have what we can handle right now,” Carter said.