Astec Industries featured an expansive lineup of aggregate and material processing equipment at ConExpo-Con/Agg, exhibiting in Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center. P&Q had the opportunity to visit with several Astec leaders midway through the show, including John Swift, vice president of aftermarket; Bob Leavy, channel management director; and Michael Norris, group president of Materials Solutions.
The discussion covered several topics – including Signal, Astec’s digital platform that connects machinery, asphalt plants and operations for real-time tracking, data analytics and performance monitoring. Astec’s dealer approach and outlook for the year ahead also came up.
P&Q: How is Signal impacting how Astec manages the parts business these days?
Swift: We look at parts and service as a solution rather than simple parts. It’s really data analytics-driven and moving toward predictive discussions versus reactive discussions.
To take that one step further, we’re adapting our training offerings to meet the users where they are – whether that is through QR codes, videos or microlearning – rather than the traditional standalone training.
P&Q: What’s evolving on the dealer front at Astec? What are you focused on?
Leavy: I think one of the reasons Michael brought me on is that I used to be an owner of a dealership. I sat on that side of the fence. Working with the channel, I can have empathy and sympathy with the dealers coming in.
I know what they’re facing every day. I know the obstacles they face. I think I’m a good bridge between manufacturing and distribution. There’s a trust factor there because I’m rooting for Astec and I’m rooting for the dealerships.
P&Q: How do you ultimately get dealers to work in sync and be collaborative with one another?
Leavy: We’re setting defined lines and respecting each other’s territory. Our dealer council is working on getting the dealers to become partners and friends. There’s a lot of communication now between the dealers that maybe wasn’t there five years ago. We’re working hard to build that strong network and partnership.
P&Q: With so much changing so fast these days – whether on the parts front or the equipment front — there’s so much that needs to get communicated downstream to dealers and, ultimately, end users. How do you make sure dealers are disseminating the messages you truly want out there?
Norris: With our dealer network, it’s really a partnership. We communicate with them consistently. We have formal reviews with them around performance and those types of things. But we see and talk to our dealers all the time.
We have formal events like this (ConExpo-Con/Agg). We have AED. We also have our dealer sales meeting a couple times a year where we bring everybody into a social environment. And we do product training and talk about concerns and those types of things. We really see our dealers as partners.
P&Q: From each of your seats at Astec, what are you trying to push out to the market at ConExpo-Con/Agg?
Norris: For us, this is a big show. There’s a lot of new technology here. Astec has a pretty strong history of innovation, and what we’re trying to show is that that continues.
Over the next 12 to 24 months, you’re going to see a lot of new product coming out from Astec. There’s been a big change in the last five years. We changed leadership in the last five years. Jaco van der Merwe became CEO. I became president. If you talk to the dealer network, they like the changes.
Swift: As Michael said, there’s decades of DNA here. It’s about building on legacy and really using data-driven decision making to take it to the next space – and really focusing on customer-centric decision making.
If we build an ecosystem among our dealers and inspire and enable them to communicate – and we act as the enabler there – it’s going to take us to the next level and serve as a strategic differentiator. It’s really about building on decades of strength and using new technologies and new processes to take it forward.
P&Q: How would you characterize the health of the aggregate industry as the spring production season approaches?
Norris: The mood is pretty positive. The volumes are coming back. Over the past few years, volumes have been down. Sales and margin have been great for everybody, but volumes have actually been down.
Now, though, the volumes are coming back a little bit. We’ve seen a lot of input from data centers driving some of that volume. I think all of our competitors will tell you they’re feeling that a little bit.
Q4 was a strong order intake for us, and this year started out very strong as well. We’re bullish on the next 36 months for the industry.
We also had Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri), chairman of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, here in Las Vegas. We were talking with him about the status of the [federal highway] bill, and he was very optimistic.
My expectation is that there will be a draft of that by the end of March. They’re optimistic about meeting the Sept. 30 [IIJA expiration] deadline to get the new infrastructure bill done.
The current bill is around $1.2 trillion. Inside that, only about $300 billion really touches our industry – infrastructure, roads and bridges. The new bill is expected to be somewhere between $500 and $600 billion focused on just our industry. It’s going to be a big tailwind.
We’re pretty optimistic.
Related: Keep up with P&Q’s complete coverage of ConExpo-Con/Agg
