Pit & Quarry, April 2014

PIT QUARRY HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES J Don Brock Entrepreneuer built family of companies into a billion dollar enterprise ive Thats how many customers Don Brock chairman of Astec Industries tries to reach each day Its a daily goal for Brock and one he encourages others within his company to achieve each day BY KEVIN YANIK Don is an engineer and technical by background but he has a great business acumen says Joe Vig president of KPIJCI and Astec Mobile Screens one of 18 Astec companies His real love is selling the product to customers Id venture to say that of any corporation no chairman talks to more customers than Don Brock does Hell ask each of us if weve talked to our Although Brock is an engineer by trade colleagues say his true love is selling his product and working with customers five customers and Id be the first one to say I do not talk to five per day I talk to as many as I can but I guarantee you he does talk to five per day Brocks passion and dedication to sales is one of many reasons why hes been inducted to the Pit Quarry Hall of Fame His crowning achievement is Astec Industries which he founded in 1972 with partners and expanded over many years Now Astec is roughly a 1 billion company Brock says It didnt reach that mark overnight though Instead a series of periodic acquisitions brought products such as pavers and crushing equipment to the company One key acquisition that launched Astec into aggregates occurred when the Barbara Green Co and the Telsmith brand were brought into the fold The opportunity Brock saw in acquiring such companies was to vertically integrate Astec to bring the aggregates asphalt and concrete industries together Entrepreneurs who want to sell their businesses come to us versus us going to them because we keep the same management try to put the money in they need and give them the technology to grow their business Brock says Yet we let them stay in the town where they started Weve hardly done any merging or moving from one town to another I think that model attracts entrepreneurs because many are more interested in seeing their people continue to have jobs and see the business stay in the current town Steady growth Brocks first exposure to engineering was through his father a welder who did boiler repair work According to Brock he was re tubing boilers with his father by the time he was 14 years old Asphalt plants which used to contain boilers were one machine Brock re tubed during his early years Brock later earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of Tennessee and he obtained a Master of Science and a Ph D in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology Astec Industries was founded seven years later as a company that built heaters and asphalt plants Equipment for the aggregates industry was eventually integrated into Astec Industries because Brock saw an opportunity to unite industries Aggregate people dont understand asphalt and they dont understand concrete he says And the concrete people dont understand aggregate They all talk but they dont un 32 PIT QUARRY April 2014 www pitandquarry com