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BREAKING NEWS : Consolidation and Expansion: A Towing Industry Tale · Towing News Now

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Welcome one and all to the American Toe and Recovery Institute podcast.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: This is your podcast to promote safety, education, positive public relations and networking within the professional and business minded tone recovery industry.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: I'm your co-host, dj Harrington, better known as the Toe Doctor, and I'm honored to have as the other co-host of today's episode a 40 year Toe industry veteran and the founder of American Toe and Recovery Institute, who has done more than 910 classes and counting the one and only Wes Wilburn Wes, how are you doing, my friend?
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I'm doing really good, dj, feeling good.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Things are clicking along, getting ready for our fall season to take off.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: As we're recording this, on a day or two away from going up to the Great Lakes region, going to do a school there in Elkhart, indiana, going to visit some business associates outside of Chicago, I'm looking forward to a great week this week and getting ready to do a podcast with you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Happy IPN, grander.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I asked you.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll see each other at the Midwest regional Toe show also, but this is that's right.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: There's a few in the way.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Yep, and yes, we have on today has been on in the past and it's I don't want to remind all of our listeners when Fred was on the last time.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: All of those times are archived, so you just go on to American Towing and Recovery Institute podcast and you can go back to Fred from Henry's, and it was a phenomenal one.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So Fred has been heard again and again and again, and so Wes, I'm going to turn it over to you so you can introduce one more time A real gifted guy in our industry.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you, DJ.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Fred from Henry said I don't think it's any mystery that I have a strong relationship with Henry, to have for several generations through several different ownership situations.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Number one member of the Institute, first one to join the Platinum level, sponsor, Great friend of the podcast, Great friend of the Institute and someone that I looked up to in the business world and part of the reason I'm having Fred on there is Fred.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: There was seismic earthquake felt the other day when I saw a press release that Henry had joined forces with Roadrunner, which are two dominant forces of telling in the north of Virginia.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So we're going to end the conversation there, but we'll start first with you introducing yourself, who you are, a little bit about your background.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: I want to talk about consolidation what's going on in the industry?
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: There's a couple groups out there doing it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Now again Wes.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I saw that you and Roadrunner joined forces, which both are good companies just epic competition.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: So we're going to talk I won't tell all those and more, but let's just start out with just introducing yourself, who you are and a little bit about yourself and where you've grown, where Henry's is today.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: I know it's a hot color, but I know you've got, you can handle that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: So introduce yourself and tell us about Henry's and where they were and where they are today.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Sure, wes.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Again, my name's Fred Schieler.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I started out of your work for Henry in the late 90s around 96, 95, worked my way up in the management and management to running different divisions, to owning the company back in 2012,.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: And then purchased another company along the way Windsor and then recently I guess it's been about a year decided to team up with a family fund and, as you said, wes, we just closed the deal.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: Where we are now, our sister company is Roadrunner.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: So family fund we're going to talk about that.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: That's going to be about definition.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Definitely DJ Rail Cinderella story here.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: The hard work and brains in the American dream can still get somebody ahead.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Fred, I commend you on that.
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about the family equity and the consolidation that's going on with the organization you're involved with now, how it all works.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Give us all the gory details, all right.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I was planning my exit strategy and I did hire a business worker at the time and they found, put feelers out and flyers out and throughout the network of private equity groups and family funds and the family fund, we fit into their niche business.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: They like companies that have government contracts, so they decided to take a look at it and then, when they're doing this approach, we look at them and there was three other private equity groups that stepped up to the plate with significant offers and me and my wife sat down and we interviewed basically each one separately, obviously and asked them their questions and their thoughts and what they wanted to do.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: What did their visions look like of the company?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Because we were worried and concerned about our employees was a big focus, because they helped us get to where we are.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: We didn't want them to feel like they were abandoned.
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: So through the process, we found that the family fund even though they were not offering the most cash deal as in walk away, we walk away with the most money in our pockets immediately.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: But the structure of the deal was such that I stayed on for at least two years and now it's been changed indefinitely I'm saying it on and it was able to help the company grow and do other acquisitions so that my employees felt comfortable.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Nothing changed with them.
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: The benefits stayed the same.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: If anything changed, they went back in the case of increases in salaries to some of my employees actually, to the majority of them and we have kept our benefits, even though our costs have gone up.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: We've made sure we continue to contribute as much towards the healthcare, which again save the employees money.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: I had more money for them to contribute with and then now they're part of a larger group.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: We're thriving, running more calls more possible calls even and growing the business, and that led to the merger with a road partner.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: They'll grow our business and again, their employees are good.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: They're working well with our employees.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Communication is key and that's what we're doing, and we're looking at the synergy between the two companies as where we can save money by not having stuff competing against each other but overlapping each other.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: My HR department may take on all of it.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: His HR may take on my parts for trucks, buying trucks in general, to buying power now.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: So now you're talking to three companies compared to just two companies.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: So let me get this straight, you guys, are you merging operations or are you running operations side by side?
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we are continuing to run them the same way you used to run Henry's and Windsor.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: They're running side by side.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: There's no rebranding.
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: Road runners Keeps the name on his trucks, his DOT number.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: It operates as road runner, Henry's operates as Henry's, Windsor operates as Windsor.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: And then of course, there's the parent company above their own DOT's pretty and they just help each other out.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: We swap calls back and forth.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: We, you know, constantly.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: You know customers, our customers know that if they give us a call until the west side of the Loudoun County, which is out of our base of footprint, where before we would have to send a truck to go out there and run that call, Now Roadrunner will go run that call in fights of Versa with us.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: Roadrunners and deserts.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Which is within their footprint.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: You're saying Correct, correct Closest truck.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: The rule of thumb is still saying the closest truck gets the call.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Well, I might have spent all that extra money on fuel to run that call when I don't have to.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: Well, this is a tie before, but this sounds a little bit different.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: But first of all, you sold the company to them and you just work for them as an employee.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Now.
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: No.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: Thanks so okay.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: My purchase was a stock purchase, so they purchased.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: We came up with an evaluation based off of EBITDA, which is earnings before interest, taxes and amortization, the Act 1 average.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: For example, a tow company will run in a multiple of your EBITDA range of sales for evaluation of a 3.01 to roughly four and a half, 4.34 and a half evaluation Based on that evaluation.
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: That is what 100% of your stock has worked.
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: So if you're EBITDA let's say to keep numbers simple is $2 million and you get a four times evaluation.
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: That would give you an $8 million is what your company has worked in revenue.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: So then the purchase, and that would be considered a free and clear purchase meaning all your trucks are paid for.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: So they would give you that money out of that money at the time of the transaction Any truck ones that would be paid off.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: So that's what I did, but I only sold 80% of it.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I kept the other 20% as an equity into the new company formed as the holding company that owns all these companies.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Okay, so I'm still an owner, I am still sitting on the board of directors and having those in the process of what goes on, and as we do these other acquisitions, I help evaluate the companies with them and help them to negotiate deals and do the actual purchase.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: And now with the purchase of Roadrunner, it's the same scenario.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: Dave now has a position on the board, he has stock in the original parent company and you get your money up front and then that little percentage that's left over.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: Eventually, 10 years, 15 years from now, it'll be sold again and you get another bite of the apple, but in the meantime you're collecting dividends.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: So the value of the stock keeps going up, so you're going to collect dividends on it.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Now, when you say stock, this is privately held stock or publicly traded stock.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Privately held stock.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, I thought it was.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Just wanted to clarify that.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: No, no problem.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: So that's what I did, and then again, I owned some of the land at the time, so they now pay me a fair, reasonable rent based on market value for the property they wanted the operations for and that of every month.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: Signed a long term lease with them.
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: They have a full net lease, so hang on a second friend I want to dive into that.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: I want to dive into a couple other things.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You said that we're up to a hard break.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: Can we take a quick break, get you to hang around, and we got a lot more to cover.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: So we'll get back to that evaluation about the business as well and how the books are handled, etc.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: So hang around till after the break.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: We hope you're enjoying this podcast.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Really special interview, Brad.
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: I appreciate you being so open and talking about what you guys are doing.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: The folks at Purpose Record are record specialists.
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: They don't get bogged down with other types of sales like cars, assorted equipment or snow plows.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: Purpose Record exclusively specializes in towing and hauling.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: From parts and service to financing, they remain focused on providing the best service and customer care to the towing and hauling industry.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Even in these trying times, purpose Record works hard to meet the needs of its customers.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: They are the preferred distributor in North America for purchasing towing and recovery equipment.
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: For more information, visit them on the web at PurposeRecordcom, or speak to a specialist by calling 636-639-9700.
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: That's 636-639-9700.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Celebrating 40 years in the towing industry that's PurposeRecordcom.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: Information in this podcast is made possible by generous sponsorship from Henry's Record, serving the community with quality towing and recovery for over 40 years.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Purpose Recordcom.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I'm Henry.
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you, dj and Fred.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: I thank you for being with us and being so open with about things.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Fall Guard Capital is the organization that's the parent company.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: I'm Fred, I'm here at Fall Guard, fall Guard Capital.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: I'm talking about several things.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: One of them is, as we're going to break, that the full guard is looking to buy the company, the name, the equipment, but not real estate.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: Expand on that a little bit of why that's a good deal if you do own your own real estate, and also from that I want to come backwards to the value of a business as well.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: So can I ask those two questions actually, please?
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Back on the.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're not looking to buy the land.
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: They signed a for the land that we rent.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: They signed a long-term lease with me For my property.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: We already had long-term leases in effect on some of the other properties that Henry's utilized and that way you know you're getting your rent.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: It's a triple net lease.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: They take care of all the property maintenance taxes.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: You just collect your rent every month At a fair market value.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: They don't expect you to rent it any less of a company just because you still own stock in the parent company.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: You rent it to them at a fair market value and that was negotiated between the two parties when we would take the purchase of the stock.
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: And then of course you know I'm staying in one, and definitely right now, but initially it was for two years to run the operations.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: But I'm excited about the future of the company and how things are going, and so I decided to stay on.
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: And I just don't need the freedom to do what I wanted to do and at the same time, they pay me a very, very decent salary and I get to keep on my employee benefits, the health insurance, the 401k, the dental vision, all that stuff at the same time.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: It was definitely different from a lot of the private equity groups.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: One of the biggest things.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: So, let's talk about that, if we could.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Private equity group versus family equity am I saying that correct?
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: Family fund.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Family fund.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: What's the difference?
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: The biggest difference is in a private equity group.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: They have to go out and raise money.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: They go out and raise capital from individual investors, wealthy people or funds, and then they take that money.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: They say we're going to go out and buy these companies and we're going to give you a multiple of effects on your investment to us and we'll have that return to you in seven years.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: Some are eight years.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: So they have to come in, purchase the companies, build the companies up, make them so they're attracted to another buyer within that timeframe so that they can.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: Then, if I give that private equity guy a million dollars, he's hoping to give me a 10% return or 12% or even 5%.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Well, he's got to sell that company off in so many years because that funds up and I get my money back plus what they're supposed to return on my investment.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: Hopefully it's 5%.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: That's the time that they want to get like 10% to 12% now plus they keep their fees.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: So there's that timeframe Family fund.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: If they want to keep the company for 20 years, they can keep it for 20 years.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: That's not saying they won't sell it in eight years or five years.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: If somebody offers enough money to wear a feasible for everybody to make a good profit.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: They're going to sell the company, but on the majority of it they don't have to.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: There's no requirement that says they have to sell that money because they don't go out looking for money.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: People come to them, these families that have money left.
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: They've got a lot of money and they give it to them and say you're going to invest in these companies and help raise these companies.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: A couple of companies are not mistaken.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: They've held on to for already six years and have no plans on selling them, as far as I know.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Others, some other industries correct.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, other industries correct, we are the first telling company.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: They got into the telling industry.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: What are some of the things they look for when they're evaluating a tone company?
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Well, one of the next things with industries is they like companies that have government contracts, and by that I mean a group of contracts.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Explain on that one please.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, whether it be a contract with your local government that tell all the school buses or to transport government vehicles or the police work that it's truly a contract, not a MOU or what they call Memorandum of Understanding, or the police departments that just have a rotation list that anybody can sign up as long as you have two trucks and a storage yard.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: We're looking for real government contracts and again, it doesn't necessarily have to be police phone.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: There's other government contracts for standby for when there's inclement weather, other contracts like VDOT has some of the municipalities around the country but that helps in their niche.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Then it comes to your evaluation and that's all when you're keeping your books.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: What's some of the common mistakes you see there?
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: First of all, when it comes to your books, make sure you have a certified accountant and or you know, looking over your books.
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: That would be the first thing I would do if you were.
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: You know, mostly smaller companies don't hire a CFO.
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: I was always fortunate enough to have a CFO working for me, but there, yeah, I still had an accounting service that came in and audited the books to make sure everything was up and up.
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: But when it comes to keeping your books by that, I mean I know there's a lot of companies out there that will.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: For example, when they scrap their cars let's say the car sells for 500 bucks that cash may never hit the balance book, or they record the sale of the car for a lector amount and then take the difference in cash and never hit their books.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: And that can really hurt you when it comes time for your exit strategy.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: Because the average tow company, the earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation usually runs between three to four and a half percent.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: So let's just use a simple number of multiple of four on your EBITDA Again, which is earnings before interest taxes, depreciation and amortization, and then multiple and any owner's expense that are ran through the company that you're backing out of it because they get to add it back in as profit, as long as it's, you know, on your books.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: For example, my car payment came out of the company.
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: I owned the company vehicle time, so the money they were spending the company was spending on my car payment got added back to that EBITDA number as profit because they were no longer going to be paying it for my company car.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: So that multiple again.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: This is where the multiple and where the cash is coming off the top of the books and never hit your books.
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: So, for example, let's say you pocketed $100,000 in cash off your racked vehicles or whatever it is.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: Well, then you get a multiple of four times your company, so that $100,000 now costs you in the sale of your stock $400,000 because it's a multiple, put on it a four times.
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: So you just hurt yourself by $400,000 in the sale of the company.
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: So you want to make sure you're kept good with.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: I just want to say one of the many, many reasons to run up profit-type legit shifts.
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: You only hurt yourself in the long run.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: The same with paying employees partially on the books and then giving them some cash.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: I know companies that are out there that are doing that.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: They give them like $600 salary and whatever mission, whatever.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: They give them that drink and pay them out in cash because they don't want to pay the extra payroll taxes or the extra workers' comp stuff.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: But you're only hurting yourself and you're only hurting your employee in the long run, because when they go to buy a house or buy a car it says they can only claim they make $600 a week.
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: They can't claim the cash or give them because you're not claiming it.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: It's not going to be on their statements for their paychecks.
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: So it's more important to do things by the book straight up, because you're only hurting yourself and or your employees in the long run.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Do the information.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: You can hang around for one more break and we'll get a lot more to talk about.
• 24:09
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  Speaker 4: 9000.
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• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Welcome back listeners.
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: You're listening to the American Tone Recovery Institute with Wes Wilburn, DJ Harrington and Fred, who has been a special guest for this special episode.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: Remember to like, review and share, Wes, and I cannot thank you enough for letting your friends know about this podcast.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: If you'd like to hear some other industry experts like Fred, just dial 706-409-5603 and let Wes know and he and his team at American Tone Recovery Institute will do their best to get, just like Fred, a real industry expert on the podcast so we all can learn together.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Because I'm sitting here taking notes saying you know, this guy has some great tips and if I and my wife were thinking about getting involved in consolidation, what are some of the questions I need to ask and make sure I get the proper answer?
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: So, Wes, I'm going to turn it back over to you.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Thank you, dj.
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: So, fred, you've talked about the importance of having a CTA and paying close attention in books.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: How important is it to have a professional relationship with a CPA and other professional relationships?
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: You know, like Banco in Alabama, what other professional relationships do you?
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: consider important.
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: Well, it's definitely with your accountant and CPA, and let them have collected books.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: They're there to help you.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: Let them do the decision making on what's considered tax-deductible, not tax-deductible.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: Before you do a transaction, ask them is this really a tax-deduction or can I get a better man out of it to go towards your books?
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: The other one is with the bankers.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: I was fortunate enough with the bank that I used to build a solid relationship and, as I was able to start putting stuff together, one of the regional vice presidents in charge of commercial lending sat down with me, with the branch manager, and introduced me and we went through my books, my financials, and he told me hey, for you to be more bankable and get better loans, better rates, this is what categories you need to fix on your P&L, this is what you need to fix on your cash flow.
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: And I listened to him and it was all free advice.
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: That's the best part of it.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: And we were able to take the company and continue growing it until I got to a point where I felt I had grown as much as I could by myself with my funds and credits available, and it was time to take that back.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: And that's where I met the family fund and it's a lot easier to grow a company with somebody else's money than it is with yours I will say that.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: And you're still going to have a butt of the apple in the end when they do eventually decide to go ahead and sell it.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: If they do in 20 years, it's not in collecting dividends off my initial investment that I gave them in my 20% that I held onto which, again, it's just more income coming in as I'm retiring.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: And those relationships are important.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: Especially if they take a personal interest in your business like that and help guide you in the right direction.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: That's invaluable.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: And I was dealing with what's conservative regional banks, not a small-town bank.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: They're good-sized banks that go from Maine all the way down to, you know, in the Virginia, and so for them to take time, you can get that service at that level.
• 29:11
  Speaker 3: It doesn't have to be the small-town, three-branched-taught bank that you're getting that from either.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: You know, and if you have a good relationship, you should be able to get it from any of the banks, because they should want your business and help you to grow your business, because that means more business for them.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: Tell us talk a little bit about the scope of Henry's operation, size-wise, and any other information you're willing to share.
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: Well, now with the acquisition-slash merger with Roadrunner, we're well above 25 million a year in revenue.
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: You know our even-out number is solid, almost two digits, and we'll get to that two.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: You know we're almost there but we'll get there by doing, like I said, some of the consolidation with our insurances, workers' comp stuff behind the scenes that doesn't affect the operation Because, again with the family fund, they're not involved in the day-to-day or the month-to-month operations.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: They're more involved in quarterly phone calls just to say, hey, how are we doing financially?
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Where do you see our growth capabilities going forward?
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: Do you have any more acquisitions you'd like us to look at and look into and companies that we can do something with?
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: And there's going to be some smaller acquisitions that we do that may end up being an asset sale because we can just fold that operation right into an existing operation when they are flip-flopped and there you would rebrand the trucks.
• 30:55
  Speaker 3: But for the most part we're looking for larger companies and let them learn their individual what we can overlap or we can overlap, and there's some stuff that Roadrunner does, that Henry doesn't do, that invites a versa, that we're learning about and that make us both more productive and profitable.
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: All right, like their truck maintenance program, they do a lot of in-house maintenance and service work.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: They have a full garage.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: All my stuff that Henry's was doing.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: The majority of it, unless it was just normal maintenance, would be an outsource.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Now I can outsource it to Roadrunner, their shop through the repairs.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I get a discount rate as Henry's Roadrunner still gets the money.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: But the money gets transferred back and forth between companies but it's all underneath the parent company.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: You're feeding off each other.
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: The other thing we're doing is we look at each other's rates, what we're charging, and we're consolidating our rates so that, hey, it crossed our footprint.
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: These are our rates.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: Whether you call Henry's for a cash call, you call Roadrunner for a cash call, these are our company rates, corporate rates that are set.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: Some of it is less than mine, some of mine are more than his, vice versa.
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: So we'll come to an equal.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: Okay, this is where we're going to be charging at.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: Hopefully we set some market trends by doing our rates the way we do.
• 32:17
  Speaker 3: We all know Coach Follows Tessie and Tessie Follows Coach.
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: That is true, that is very, very true.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: Then we will talk to our bigger customers.
• 32:30
  Speaker 3: For example Now one of my bigger customers.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: I say listen, I just expanded my footprint areas I couldn't service you in, I now can.
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: Our current footprint right now runs from the Baltimore Washington area, which would be Baltimore up in Maryland, baltimore City, baltimore County and surrounding areas from there all the way down to the Capitol Beltway.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Then we surround the entire Capitol Beltway and then we go west to the outer side of Fairfax County all the way out.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: Now, okay, west Virginia and that section of Mountain County.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: We go down to Prince William County now because Robert is closing up to Prince William line to help service those customers.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: That's quite a footprint.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: As you expand, are you looking to make that footprint denser or bigger?
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: Most, Most If there's a fit inside that's the footprint that already exists and it's a good fit with a like-minded owner to understand that you take care of your employees, you do the right things, your books are above board, it's worth buying into.
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that doesn't mean again outside the footprint area too, and you do some backfilling.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: If the right company is there and the right owner, we're going to get a deal done.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: If they want to get a deal done, you can always backfill too.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: Most of these deals that we've been doing, the owners do want to stay on and they want to bring that second person in management up, that guy that's been working underneath them, so that in three years they can exit and just be a member of the board of directors and let that person underneath them take full charge.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: That's what it's also about is growing your employees and giving your employees a chance to grow with the companies as these guys, as we grow up.
• 34:29
  Speaker 3: I've had managers that were just shift managers that are now general managers running multiple locations because of these gross perks.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: So it gives the employee an opportunity to grow also and that's important for you to keep your good health.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and there's long-term benefits for employees that say.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, all our employees have a 401k plan.
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: They all have medical.
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: You know, right now, technically, henry's offers a free medical plan.
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Well, that free medical plan, as we're doing these acquisitions, robiner didn't offer a free medical plan to his employees, so now these employees will have that option to have a free medical plan.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: There's some plans that Dave may offer to help coverage that are better than our plans.
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: So that's what we're in the process.
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: You know, in your first 100 days or so Going through that back of the house stuff, making sure that if I'm offering a 4% on my 401k match, make sure Dave's offering a 4%.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: If Dave was offering a 5%, then you know what Henry's going to step up and start offering 5%, because we don't want to take away from the employees.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: We want to make sure that the mergers and everything not only helps us at the top, it goes all the way down to your employees and helps every one of them make their lives better, their pay better and their pay potential better, that they can be the best employee that they can be.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Well, that's awesome that you have the structure set up to provide that for people In this day and age.
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: You're definitely looking in the right direction.
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: I was thinking many different levels.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: Well, the one thing I will always say is drivers, drive the business.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's true.
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: As you know, almost everything we do here is based on the operations level.
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: So, moving forward, where do you see the next growth?
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Well, let me back up.
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: There's several different groups consolidating around the country.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: What differentiates you from them?
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: I can't speak about what the other groups do or how they do things.
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: The only thing I can tell you is how we do what we do, and I only worry about what we're doing, because that's what the focus is and that's what important to me.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: The other groups, they do what they do and if it works for them, it works for them.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: I only know what works for us and what I feel is the best practice going forward.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Fair enough.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Fair enough and we definitely appreciate you being so open about what you folks are doing.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Take a moment, if any of the other consolidators around the country are listening, we'd like to come on the podcast and talk about what we are and what you're doing.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: We'd love to have you Reach out to us Phone number is 910-74-79000.
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: That's the business line.
• 37:36
  Speaker 2: I have to speak to me.
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: What's open, it's your schedule on.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: We're April open.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: My wife actually handles as much of the schedule as I do, but we'd like to have you on and, fred, we appreciate you being on.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, Fred, before we end this all up and I turn it back over to Wes to do the ending, what email address could our listeners should they have a question?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Should they be sitting with their wife discussing this and maybe want to just talk to you and ask you a question?
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: What best email they could reach you at?
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: The best email to reach me at is my work email, obviously, which is Fred F-R-E-D.
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: The underscore sign F-San at Henryreckercom.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: All one word.
• 38:31
  Speaker 2: Any other things you'd like to share about what you all are doing?
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: Any plans to expect in the future?
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: Well, I can tell you that the industry is a whole.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: I feel that everyone right now whether you've been in the business for 10 years, you're in your 30s or in your 40s you need to start planning an exit strategy.
• 38:57
  Speaker 3: You may not execute that exit strategy for another 10 years, but you should have it planned out because if the opportunity comes up, you want to have it already planned out in your mind and know what you need and what your ultimate goal is to accomplish in the industry or as an individual, for your family.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: I think we have one of the best formulas to create family wealth down the road, for anyone that we end up doing an acquisition with, so that you know you're setting your family up for the future.
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: That's what it's all about.
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: In the long run, Everybody wants to make sure their family has success.
• 39:38
  Speaker 3: At the same time, your family is your employees.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: That's all I got to say.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: I guess I'll put it in a nutshell.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Well said, Fred, Very well said and from a lot of points together very eloquently there.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: We definitely appreciate you being on the podcast.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: You continued support of the Institute.
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Can't appreciate you enough, Fred.
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: No, thank you, Wes, for everything you do, and DJ Also.
• 40:12
  Speaker 3: You guys do a great service to the industry and I look forward to helping support that, especially when it comes to the safety and making sure that drivers get home every night to their families.
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: Thank you, fred, thank you.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Well, there you have it.
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: Special report on consolidation.
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: What's your exit strategy?
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: And thanks, fred, for Henry's record service.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: I'm being here and sharing with us DJ.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: Thank you Chuck, april, the whole ACR, acri team, everybody that helped us out.
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: I'm going to go ahead and say thank you.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:35
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:38
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you.
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: I'm going to say thank you, acri Team, for everybody that helped support all this stuff together.
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: Back to our regularly scheduled program.