John J Irvine III is president of Roadtec, part of Astec Industries
“Through these efforts and many others in our industry, jobs were created, optimism returned, new roads began the design cycle, and our customers started buying new equipment again,” said John J Irvine III, president of Roadtec. “Roadtec experienced a 10% growth in sales for the year, right from the beginning of the year.”
The passing of the FAST-ACT Highway Bill was considered the catalyst in 2016. In that year, the company hired and trained more than 100 new factory employees and signed nine new equipment dealers. The dealers represent Roadtec in 15 states, where they have been trained in service and sales support. The dealers are fully stocked with parts and components, and carry inventories of machines to facilitate timely deliveries.
“We feel the market in 2016 had a real wait and see attitude up until the election,” Irvine said. “With the current administration’s plans for a $1 trillion infrastructure program over 10 years, we are very optimistic about our industry.”
The firm says that a major contributor to its success in 2016 was its Guardian Telematics System for the e-series milling machines or cold planers, pavers, and shuttle buggy material transfer vehicles. The Guardian Telematics System is designed to diagnose service issues and provide production reports. The software received significant refinements and enhancements in 2016. The telematics system can now monitor the equipment for possible electrical or hydraulic failures before they occur, sends emails to the Roadtec service centre and the customer when systems are outside preset parameters.
Irvine said, “Roadtec can service a machine in the field and fix many items over the internet, update programming, and even locate lost machines via GPS tracking.”
He explained that the improved sales performance was a major plus for the firm. “We were not expecting a big year because the two previous years we had bet on a new highway program and lost,” said Irvine. “Ending 2015, we were carrying too much inventory. We liquidated most of our finished goods inventory by year’s end and, of course, a bill was passed in December. We had a small amount of component inventory coming in first quarter 2016. We rallied and turned it up, hiring people, training, pulling component purchases up in our schedule and finished with our best year ever.”
A new departure for Roadtec is its change to sales and support, which the company expects will also have a positive impact on its 2017 performance. Roadtec has previously sold directly to its customers and provided start-up and service technicians from its Chattanooga base of operations.
“We have shifted our model from selling and servicing direct to the customers,” Irvine said. “Our sales had plateaued and to grow we needed that local presence, thus our decision to add qualified, quality dealers who can service and sell our products to the level we provide.”
“With the addition of dealers to our business model, we have not cut one head at Roadtec,” stated Irvine. “We plan to keep all the good people our customers have leaned on in the past to help them be successful. These people will also be training dealer personnel so we can multiply ourselves to service and better support our customers in the field wherever they are located.”
Roadtec continues to look for dealers, “…that are financially sound, have experience in our industry, and most importantly align with our core principles of ‘taking care of customers, honesty and integrity in all we do, and respecting all individuals,’ Irvine added. “These are critical values that our employees, suppliers, and dealers must adhere to. We have signed four additional dealers since the first of the year covering 10 more states. These are experienced roadbuilding dealers that know the business.”
Roadtec is expecting growth in all the US states that have passed new fuel taxes that will allow them to get FAST-ACT Highway Bill matching federal funds to build new and repair existing roads in their respective states.
New products or product line expansions for 2017 include the Guardian Telematics System which is now available on the Shuttle Buggy SB2500, a new Tier 4 Final SX-6 Soil Stabiliser, and a new MTV1100e Material Transfer Vehicle.
Additionally, Roadtec has three goals for 2017 according to Irvine, “We have an internal goal of 20% sales growth. We can accomplish this aggressive goal with the help of our new dealer partners.”
He added, “Traditionally, the second year of a highway bill is the great year. The first year, states and specifying agencies are designing new projects and securing funding. The second year, they let the projects and optimism abounds. This is that year.”
