Asphalt Industry Reacts To LeeBoy, FAYAT Deal

Marvin Joles  00:28 

How goes it 

Brandon  00:29 

it goes very well. This is a first for me and you. I'm Brandon. Well, I'm the editor for pavement maze, pavement maintenance and reconstruction magazine, and I'm here with Marvin Jules, famous for the back black top banter podcast, formally and now in the mix with 

Marvin Joles  00:55 

Yeah, it's good to be here. This is a fun and exciting time, but as we venture into new technology that allows you and I to collaborate on in a an event or a post in real time. It's fun. 

Brandon  01:08 

Yeah, it's it's kind of crazy, because we've never done anything like this before, but today's news kind of demands that we, we get on and start talking about what is going on. So Marvin, why don't you hit us off here with the news that dropped late last night? Yeah. 

Marvin Joles  01:32 

So of course, with me, I think everybody knows, I keep a close eye and ear to what's going on on social media and whatnot, and a good friend, mutual friend of ours, and a writer with me from time to time in different publications, Brian Hall, who has been at Lee boy for a long time, posted on LinkedIn, that Fiat Group, who we know very well in the asphalt industry, signed An agreement to acquire Lee boy, which is, for me, very, very exciting news. There's like two mergers within the last five years that I've been excited about, and this is one of them. 

Brandon  02:11 

Yeah, it's kind of crazy, because I already owns two companies that make these same products, yeah, and I will say that one of the since I've only been in the industry for the last three years, one of the first things that I learned and was curious about was the fact that omag and dynapac, you know, had this parent umbrella over top of it, yeah? And now that umbrella has gotten even bigger, and I wonder what the pros and cons you know of this situation are going to be. What do you 

Marvin Joles  02:59 

think? Yeah, and, you know, I have to apologize, because on our on our post, initially, it also said, hum, right. And I'm like, Oh, that's not where we're at. But there the the Fiat Group does have a vast array of companies that are in the same ballpark, right, last year with with Lee boy, over the last couple years, right, even at payvex, we watch them unveil hot box. We watch compaction equipment come from Lee boy as well. And of course, when we think of dynapac, I primarily think of dynapax compaction equipment, but their material movers and their pavers are also big in the industry. And then it comes to Bomag. Right? With Bomag, we think about these huge mills that they've put forth as their staple, along with all their great compaction equipment and whatnot as well. So it's really a unique thing for me. It's always, it's always a kind of just a reality check when you see a company like FAYAT, who already has companies in this ballpark, acquire more companies that offer the same type of products, right? Because most of the time, especially with Lee boy, right? We watch Lee boy acquire Roscoe, was like, oh, sweepers go great with our pavers. Let's acquire a sweeping company. So it makes sense, and then you see this, and you're like, This is literally just a big power power play and a big power shift. 

Brandon  04:20 

It is, I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Faya in a very short, like media style interview during the last con Expo. And I mean Marvin, I was as green as green could be during that interview. And it was intimidating slightly. The man is a powerful figure. Obviously. He has built a massive conglomeration of not just asphalt industry, but the entire gamut of the construction industry world. And it's even larger, you know, overseas in. In the European market. So it's interesting to see, in the last 12 months, there have been three major acquisitions, and I posted about this this morning on four construction pros and asphalt.com that these last three acquisitions by fire were within the last 12 months we had ADM, yep, all drum mixers got purchased. And then mech lac, which makes like articulated dump trucks and other types of trucks. And then there's now the Lee boy acquisition. So they are certainly looking at the American economy and the American market as a growth sector for them like this, you know, they've got their European side, but there's definitely some things that are influencing and pushing them to continue to expand over here. The question is, for you and other contractors, is, how will this, if at all, impact and change, um, you know what's, uh, what's available now that when you go to trade shows under a single banner, there will be, you know, the fire group always has, like, the very large banner it, there will Be dynapac, Bomag and Lee boy, yeah, you know. 

Marvin Joles  06:22 

So, yeah, yeah. Well, an interesting thing, I think here's the thing, if you you know, I, I go to a lot of the conferences and a lot of events as Do you. And we know for a fact that the personnel that make these companies up interact really well with the companies that were, quote, unquote the competition as well. Like, there's always this thing of, they're doing this, we're doing this. They're improving. We need to improve. And it's created this climate of, in my opinion, progression right on the manufacturer's side. So I think that when it comes to me as the contractor, there are aspects of each brand that I really, really enjoy. When it comes to I was fortunate enough to been to Lee boy now a couple times, and they're in Lincolnton and their customer resources, like, if I'm if I have a Lee boy and I have issues that sector of what they do is amazing. There you still have that small hometown feel right where the Lee family made this thing and gets it going. And then, when I think about this, when you look at a snapshot of Lee boy, like, oh, they make papers. And you look at dynapac like, they make rollers of papers. And you look at bomas, they make rollers and equipment. But when you get down to it, Lee boy also has Rosco right, which is a sweeping side. I don't see any sweeping stuff when I go to the Bomag side, or I go to dynapac side. And then when you go to the material movement side, you see that a lot over on dynapack side, I don't see it so much on Lee boy side. So I think in my mind, it makes more sense when I think about it, when in that aspect of here are these companies that, although they all make pavers, they also have small aspects that complement the other side really well. And you were talking about the articulation equipment and whatnot, yeah, that file acquired Mecalac. Yeah, what it does for me is I don't know if 

Brandon  08:23 

I'm pronouncing that correctly. By the way, it might be. It could be some. It never fails that I will say a name of a company. It took me years to pronounce Wyler correctly, 

Marvin Joles  08:35 

yeah. What about vogula? Right? Good luck with that one, I have to tell you that 

Brandon  08:41 

for two years, I kept saying Wheeler every time, and it was not intentional. I couldn't get it out of my brain. So we're saying metal act, and we are praying that that is, that is 

Marvin Joles  08:52 

correct, yeah. Well, the the big thing for me is that when I look at the grand scheme, that means via has everything from dynapax tiny little plate compactor to Lee Boys Street Sweeper, up to dynapax 85 series paver, or, I mean Lee boys 85 series pavers. And then we go to Bo mags, mill machines, and then there's articulation equipment. So their hand is essentially starting at the littlest, tiniest part of the asphalt industry. Let's say we throw in two shovels full of cold mix asphalt. Then we have compaction equipment to get onto it. You can use a file piece of equipment overall, and then let's say that we're trying to mill and get it into a dump truck. And moving on from here, you also have, you could be using a fire piece of equipment. So really, it really is a smart move if they're looking to have a footprint everywhere. Yeah, all the way down. 

Brandon  09:47 

Let's so let's take a step back and try to look at a bird's eye view here, from a business perspective, we understand the value for them like you've laid out here. Uh. 

Marvin Joles  10:00 

Yeah, how? 

Brandon  10:02 

How, how it benefits them and expands their footprint in the United States. But from the bird's eye view, we back up and we look, it's hard not to want to use the word monopoly. We don't, we don't use that word lightly here, but I mean, it's definitely a maybe the best word to use is a consolidation, right? It is a blanket that they now have a large sector of the industry. If we So, if we take their three companies that now make up fires, paving, asphalt, commercial road building, arm. They have Lee boy. You have dynapac and they have bomac, yeah, who are the who are the now the remaining competitors in the space, you have Aztec, correct, correct. Whyler Wheeler, you have blah knocks mall is, I mean Malden, Malden Mauldin and vogula. So those are, like, the big those are probably the biggest names I can think of. I'm probably forgetting somebody, off the top of my head, that makes no your caterpillar. Are we? Are we kidding ourselves? Yes. So that means there are six big players remaining. That means 1/3 of the paving space is now a fire umbrella, yeah. 

Marvin Joles  11:43 

Well, when we think about like that, though, it's not very dissimilar, right? As I mentioned I made on our post, we had the mistake of hum being included in that realm. But hum is actually with Wyler with work. It's, yeah, no, I mean, I'm sorry, with working, right? So, and working is owned by John Deere, correct, correct. So, so here we have these collaborative parts as well, right? And then when I we Volvo, right? I did a piece on Volvo rollers. So here we have another sector that's in another tiny part. So I think when you look at the large picture, it's not necessarily 1/3 controlled by hum. And there's all these other ones. It's, here are some other ones. And we talk about Mauldin, Malden, Calder brothers, and Malden came together at one point, right? So we tell you can talk to the Calders when you're at the Malden booth at paybacks, right? So it's really unique to see, like this is kind of the formulation and where it goes. I think what is so telling about this one is Lee boy, right? It's, I mean, when you when you think asphalt, you one of the biggest brands you think of, and primarily long, longest brands ever, is Lee boy. So it's weird for me to feel that, because it doesn't feel like a Fiat brand, right? We've for us as the contractors. It's been our brand, right for a while, and I think that's what's so appealing about it. The one of the one other high notes that I would feel dismissed if we didn't talk about is the personnel, so that the family of people that are at dynapac and have been and then the family of people that have been at Lee boy and working there, the way that they interact with us as the community is really similar. We can reach out to anybody on any member of those teams. I seen Hutch over on Lee boy last night, posted that he's got the Northeast region of the United States. I'm like, right? Stellar dude immediately, you know, likes my comment, and is like, hey, you know, we're able to interact. And if I, if I was curious about this at all, I'm sure I could call Brian or Christy and at Lee boy, and they'd be like, Hey, this is what's up. It's just, it's a really, as much as the brand equipment is important during something like this, I think the personnel and and the way that they interact with the personnel and the other brands is going to be ultimately important as well, and they're really similar. Fiat has done a great job Brian Beeler and his team 

Brandon  14:13 

at Yeah, well, Brian came from Lee boy, remember, right, right as I came into the industry. Um, that transition happened like it was one of the first things like that. I remember learning that there was this transition. And it's interesting. You have to imagine, now, I'm speculating wildly here, but you have to imagine that Brian might have been at least consulted, maybe in a conversation. I mean, again, speculating wildly. I have no nothing to go on there. But as being that he was a part of Lee boy for a long time, I imagine that, you know, maybe on some level he could, you know, speak to that and their value as a company. But I think you made a really interesting point about the people now I have just like you. I have some source. Is on the inside of Lee boy. And while they will remain anonymous, the one thing that seems to be coming out, mostly from internal camp today, is like things are going to stay the same. Now, we hear this a lot in American M and A's right, mergers and acquisition it one of the first things that always comes out is things are going to stay the same. Nothing's going to change. People are going to still get the same product and services. We always hear that right now, sometimes in some industries, in some sectors, that doesn't always pan out to be the case, that things stay the same, but I have reason to believe that fire means what they say, because we can look at some of their other acquisitions in space, including dynapac, which is a much longer in history, but the ADM acquisition, they're up and you know, to this point, the biggest change has been that they ADM, as an American company, has an access to greater resources that they are they are experiencing, you know, an influx of engineering expertise, some capital, I'm sure, and other things that they maybe didn't have at their disposal. Now, if we look at the previous owners of Lee boy ST Engineering, they didn't have any other outside of Lee boy. They didn't have any other expertise or experience in this industry. Correct? They were an ownership like they owned it, but like the that side of their business, I don't see that they had any experience within within the sector that's where fire is massively different, right? They, as a company, have decades of experience in this sector, obviously, like in a different part of the world, but also the bo mag and dynapac experience, and they're going to bring that to Lee boy, just having the knowledge like Lee boy doesn't have to fight to explain what the asphalt industry is, right, right? They they already, they already know. But that's the thing, if you got bought by a company that didn't have that experience, I mean, you would have to constantly be trying to explain how the industry works and what the industry does. 

Marvin Joles  17:16 

Yeah, you the the idea that, you know, I seen somebody commented on the live feed here, like something will change and it'll be in time. It's like, yes, but everything changes in time, right? Like we the way that you and I are communicating now is far different than it was 10 years ago, right? So it is going to change. And of course, there's other influences, but that happens, whether you have a change up in the executive level management positions and whatnot. I mean, as an example, using a file as an example, Jamie Roush, leading dynapac, for the last amount of time that he did, completely changed the way that that brand was looked at in our industry, right? And I would argue that it's arguably for the much betterment, not only of that brand, but of our industry as well. And I think that that's going to be no different with Lee boy. I believe some things will change, but as you just alluded to, the change is likely to be in a positive direction because of files experience, their resources, the capital that Lee boy may have arguably had to argue for to get put in different areas, may just be speculating wildly, but yes, right? I mean, it may be a no brainer. Right to file and be like, that's a no brainer. Let's do it. So it's very interesting. You know, I can't remember where we flew into. Maybe you've seen it, you know Brandon, when we flew in somewhere, but I remember seeing an ST logo on a hanger right with the aeronautical side. Maybe when you're in Vegas, maybe it was Vegas. And I just was like, Was it awesome? Was it awesomely cool to think that the people that are creating flying machines also own the Lee boy brand as well. Yes, do I know that it was for the betterment of it? I don't know, but I do know. I do know that if I get around a bunch of guys that install asphalt, and that's all they do, and they talk about how to do it better, chances are my installation expertise is going to move up a little bit, and I just have a feeling that that's going to what's going to happen here at Lee boy. It's really neat, because I love the engineers at Lee boy. Some of those conversations I've had with those guys are absolutely fantastic. And then for them to be able to be in communication with files, larger directly in communication with fires, larger resources in that field, gets me excited. It just does. I'm all about the advancement of products in our industry and the way it's been moving and moving forward. We see that with lasers on our pavers now. We see that with GPS systems and stop 

Brandon  19:55 

the presses. Stop the presses over on our Instagram Live Feed. Uh, your name dropped. Jamie Roush has joined the the live stream. He is in he's in the chat. I also want to address two things, and where there's a little bit of a delay, but a sales person for a dealership group commented on the live stream that, as a dealer rep, there is an expectation of more capital being invested into Lee boy, now that's from RW South salesman, so we have no way of verifying that, obviously, but somebody has jumped into the chat, seemingly from the dealership side, saying that there's that expectation. Jamie's laughing because we called him out. But this, you know, this is big news, and you know, we wanted to be at the forefront of what was being talked about. I'd love to get some reactions from people listening, what you think about this change. If you're a Lee boy, you know you currently own a Lee boy. Or can you operating? How do you feel about this? What were you thinking about this? Positives, you know, and potential drawbacks. We want to hear the gamut of it. We're going to be on for maybe another 989, minutes here before we jump off. But it's definitely something that's going to have repercussions in the industry that, without a doubt, this, like you said, there will be some changes, right? 

Marvin Joles  21:27 

Yeah, yeah. What I'm excited about is the guys that were like Bo mag till I die, Lee boy, take a hike, and now we got both of them underneath one umbrella. I always find it interesting. It's like the guys that like Chevy and like dodge and Ford, and then all of a sudden, you know, if one of them went under one of the other major brands, how they would feel about that. But I've been fortunate enough, like I said, as you have as well, for us to be around these companies and the people that run them a lot to know that they are all wanting things to get improved and better and create a better experience for the customer and the contractor on the back end, which, as a contractor, this had me excited, like it's, it's cool for us to be able to see, 

Brandon  22:14 

yeah, I think, I think it is exciting. It's such exciting news that I had to get a trial subscription to stream yard so that we could, we could jump on here and talk about it. But I think it would be cool, Marvin, if you know you and I, set a weekly appointment maybe, and get on here and have a little round up of the week's news and talk about things this has been, this has been fun to jump on something and so immediate, you know, and really talk about the repercussions. 

Marvin Joles  22:45 

Yeah, yeah. I think, I think we need, we need more of that. It's really cool to be able to be in touch with everybody and kind of see these things as they unfold, as it happens within our industry. Because there's a lot of times where we'll show up to events whatnot, and not realize that a merger like this even happened until you get to an excellent like, oh, they own them now. Well, no wonder I couldn't talk to so and so over here anymore, or however it worked out. So it's really cool. It's exciting times we see a lot of times, you know, personnel changes and whatnot, at these these brands and these larger manufacturers and suppliers, but in to see something like this, this is really reminiscent of the early blacktop banner years when the rumblings of a gem seal being bought out by seal master thing happened, right? And we were like, Whoa. Like, 

Brandon  23:38 

this is I wasn't here for that. So I don't, yeah, yeah. I wasn't in the industry. Yeah? For 

Marvin Joles  23:43 

me, that was like, Whoa, because those are the two big ones. This is really reminiscent of that for me. And I think if you talk to anybody on personnel from either one of those brands, when that happened, it's been nothing but good things. And I think more than likely that's what we're going to see here too. It's, it's really exciting, because when you think about these brands in two different aspects, well, I gotta say a third brand there with dynapac to me when I picture them in my mind, right? And that's what as marketing, that's what you're hoping to do, is create a brand in your mind, that when it comes to the first of thought, this is what you think. I see the I see what our friend Matt Stanley has done. It's gritty Gothic for the contractor, right right angle edges, laying it down, putting it down. And then you see the other brands, dynapac is for me. Anyways, I think of finesse. I think about it being done with artistry. And when it comes to Bomag, I think we're going to get it done like the jobs bigger the better. You have the best stuff sitting out here. Let's mash it in and get 

Brandon  24:43 

it done milling. You know, Bomag, that's I, you know, one of the things they bring, obviously, that you were talking about, Lee boy has certain aspects with the brooms and stuff like the maintenance side, right? Lee boy, over the last year, going back to payback. X where am I at? Can't see reverse. Going back to paybacks, number one in San Antonio, you know, they were showed up with the hot box, and they were kind of making a statement, like people, is get is going to be expanding into the maintenance, you know, arm of the industry in a greater way, not just making the pavers, but giving some other things. And on like the Bomag side, like you talked about, I mean, they have the massive milling machines that are unique to their silo of the brand, and dynapac, if I'm thinking about what they have that's unique to their silo of the brand, there are two things that jump to my mind. They have the material transfer vehicles that are unique to their silo and also kind of lesser known. They have the spray tack pavers, which I'm not sure if those have made their way to the states yet. I know that it was mostly in Europe at first. But they also have something. They have these high density asphalt pavers, and they are one of only two companies, along with vovila, in the US, that have high density pavers now that's mostly used in the road building side including they'll do like roller compacted concrete with it. But there was a specialized machines, right? Those are unique and specialized. So I think a lot of times when people see fire having these multiple companies like, well, they all make the same thing. That's not true. They're not making the same things. You visited the Lee boy factory. I visited the Lee boy factory. What they're making there is, is unique to them. You know, they, they work on the designs themselves. I saw some of the Lee family when I visited my tour. They were currently like the Lee family was out there with gloves on, and they were working on the frame of a new paper, trying to, like, problem solve and troubleshoot some different things about the framing. So it's like they're they are all distinct and unique things. And when Jamie ranish Was the President, I once, a long time ago, put him on the spot in a video good. And I did, and I asked him, I said, you know, why have all these companies under this one roof? Why? You know, what's the purpose of that? And I kind of was poking at him, and I really didn't realize I was putting him in such a bind when I did, because I was so new. But his answer was good then, and it's still good now, even though he's moved on to a new industry, is that there is a brand. I don't want to call it a following, but there's a loyalty to each of these brands. And you kind of on this like people who are loyal to Bomag. That's what they are. They like dynapax for their, you know, for their machines. Like, there's a huge following for dynapac rollers. That's something that people are passionate about. They've been, you know, using those for their whole careers. And Lee boy, obviously, you know, you mentioned the Stanley family. I'd love if, I'd love if they were not working today, and they could, you know, you had a rain day. I got lucky, but I wish they had a rain day and could jump on here and really give us the how they feel and what their reaction is, that you might have to call them afterwards, and I'll 

Marvin Joles  28:14 

see if I get mad on here. The the biggest thing right is that as much as we talk about the positives of these companies, which I'm I'm optimistic and positive oriented anyway, so whenever I see anything negative, I'm like, Well, this is just a problem to solve, and most of the time, these companies will take care of all those things, but you do have some people that look down upon certain brands or different things or whatever. And I would imagine, if there's anybody who has any shade to throw at Lee boy about saying whether they lack here or lack there or wherever, it's going to be really hard to believe that those are things that are overlooked or that they don't have the capability of taking care of now with file, right? So it's, it's an exciting thing. It really, to me, it's really going to boost the brand, no matter 

Brandon  29:11 

what. Right? So I agree my today, as of June 25 my feeling about it as a member of the media and following the industry writing about it, I feel like this is an overall net positive, for sure, for Lee boy. I think that those who are loyal to Lee boy and that customer base, I think they're only going to see benefits from it. I think that over time, we'll we'll revisit this, right? And we'll have to see further, like what changes and what things happen as it plays out. We can know the future, but I think that, yeah, as of today, I It's exciting, and I think that it's going to be an overall net positive with that. I think we should draw this. Live to close, it was, it was awesome, Marvin, to come on. I think we should, we should maybe plan on doing some of this again. You got anything you want to plug real quick, and then we'll jet, 

Marvin Joles  30:10 

not really, man, I'm just excited. Like we, we talk about, we're going to revisit this in a little bit. I imagine it's going to be at payvex. We're going to see, we'll start to see some of the stuff trickle in of what changes could be if they are going to happen. And then, of course, I'm sure you're going to join me again in Vegas this year for so we'll be able to see it in a larger scale there, as these companies will be there too. So really cool. I just appreciate everybody following along. What we do, both at pavement mag and at in the mix, and what we do over here as well. And the support, I'm sure you agree with this, the support for what we do helps keep us going and doing stuff like this. 

Brandon  30:48 

Yeah, man. Also just want to let everybody know that the pavement awards for 2026 are open, yeah? So if you've got some gnarly, awesome projects that you've already done this season. Some early projects. Make sure to go to asphalt.com look up our awards and apply some you know, it's totally free. I want to make sure that everyone in the back can hear that, yes, 100% free to send us an application for one of your projects to win some industry recognition. As 

Marvin Joles  31:26 

far as I know, Brandon, I don't think I've ever paid for anything that I've submitted anywhere, whether it was a survey or whether it was for an award, right? So, 

Brandon  31:37 

you know, I get too far into that. Let's let that that's that lie, right? 

Marvin Joles  31:41 

I think, I think, you know, if you pay close enough attention and you decide to take part in it, it will be very clear for you to understand how all these things work. So once again, we really appreciate you putting that on, yeah, for me, I'm excited the in the mix podcast drops next month, and we're really excited about those conversations that we're having with contractors across the country. So very, very thankful for the support for getting that thing off the ground and going again, by you and by everybody else and our partners in that as well. Very exciting times coming within the next six 

Brandon  32:10 

months. Very exciting. And you can always check out the no edge line series on here, on this Instagram channel and on our YouTube page. You can see all those videos, and make sure to just comment your reactions below. We'd love to see those and follow up on them next time we talk. All right. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, Marvin, yep, you.