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Truck Hero's Reminder: Exceeding Their Budgeted Demand (Audio) · Bloomberg Intelligence

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  Speaker 1: Broadcasting live to New York Bloomberg eleventh Rio, to Washington,
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  Speaker 1: d C. Bloomberg to Boston, Bloomberg twelve hundred, to San
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  Speaker 1: Francisco Bloomberg nine six, to the country Shoe ex General
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  Speaker 1: one nineteen and around the globe the Bloomberg Radio Plus
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  Speaker 1: Appen Bloomberg dot Com. This is taking Stock. I'm Kathleen Hayes.
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  Speaker 1: My co host Pim Fox is on assignment this afternoon. Trucks.
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  Speaker 1: If you buy a fancy, big new pick A, get
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  Speaker 1: gotta buy some cool accessories. That's what truck Hero is
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  Speaker 1: all about. Their president CEO joining us in studio. We're
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  Speaker 1: going to find out if they're going to go ahead
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  Speaker 1: with the I p O they had to postpone last year,
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  Speaker 1: and how that truck market is looking overall. Right now,
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  Speaker 1: we're going to go to Charlie Pellack. He's in the
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  Speaker 1: newsroom with a Bloomberg business flash. Thank you very much,
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  Speaker 1: Kathleen Hayes. Stocks are trucking along on this Monday with
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  Speaker 1: the doll The SMP NEZ stack All Advancing holding close
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  Speaker 1: was to the best level of the day. The SMPS
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  Speaker 1: now at twenty one eleven, up twelve points. Again there
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  Speaker 1: of six tenths of one percent and has stack up
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  Speaker 1: thirty one again, also of six tenths of one percent down,
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  Speaker 1: industrials up one twenty nine again there of seven tenths
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  Speaker 1: of one percent. Fed Chair Janet Yellen says additional gradual
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  Speaker 1: on their precise timing, and emission viewed as a signal
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  Speaker 1: that a June move was off the table. Her comments
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  Speaker 1: to me, was in a much weaker place than it
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  Speaker 1: actually appears to be. And Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
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  Speaker 1: President Dennis Lockhart also spoke with Bloomberg Radio and Television today.
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  Speaker 1: He says the Central Bank should wait until at least
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  Speaker 1: next month to consider raising rates because of a slowing
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  Speaker 1: labor market and the British vote on European Union membership,
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  Speaker 1: adding his voice to the argument for eight delayed tenure
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  Speaker 1: down nine thirty seconds that yield one point seven three percent,
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  Speaker 1: gain of two point two percent, and at three thirty
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  Speaker 1: From the Bloomberg News Room. I'm Jeff Bellinger, Charlie, and
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  Speaker 1: we thank you, and again recapping move higher for US equities.
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  Speaker 1: We've got twenty five minutes to go ahead of the close.
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  Speaker 1: SMP up twelve to twenty one eleven. Again, they're of
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  Speaker 1: six tenths of one percent. I'm Charlie Pelton. That's a
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  Speaker 1: Bloomberg Business flash. You're listening to taking Stock with Kathleen
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  Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Radio. The truck accessories market is a fourteen
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  Speaker 1: billion dollar market. And of course people buy these pickups
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  Speaker 1: beautiful vehicles, powerful, and the next thing they do, they've
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  Speaker 1: got to buy accessories. But even if you've had a
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  Speaker 1: pickup truck for a while, you might want to update
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  Speaker 1: with some brand new, cool accessories. And here to talk
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  Speaker 1: about this and more is a man who is running
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  Speaker 1: a company who does just that. Bill Reminder is president
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  Speaker 1: and CEO of Truck Hero. He's based in an armor
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  Speaker 1: of Michigan, of course, Michigan the state for all things
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  Speaker 1: related to motor vehicles. And he's in New York City
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  Speaker 1: this week for uh to give his company's presentation at
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  Speaker 1: Baird's Global Consumer Technology and Services Conference. Bill Welcome, thank
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  Speaker 1: you for having me today. So, first of all, tell
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  Speaker 1: us about truck Hero. I love the name, very catchy.
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  Speaker 1: What does truck Hero do. Truck Hero is a collection
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  Speaker 1: of great brands of truck accessory companies. We put together
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  Speaker 1: eleven different units over the last eight years and really
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  Speaker 1: formed a powerhouse of very different types of truck bed
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  Speaker 1: covers as well as other accessors they can put in
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  Speaker 1: your vehicle, from running board, two steps to grills, and
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  Speaker 1: just the whole vast array of different products throughout the
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  Speaker 1: company that we put forth. So I've never bought a
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  Speaker 1: truck around a truck, so don't these things kind of
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  Speaker 1: these things don't come with the truck when you buy it. Well,
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  Speaker 1: in some instances you can get our accessories through your
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  Speaker 1: local dealer. We supply the O E s with our
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  Speaker 1: products other label for their General Motors or Chrysler Brandon
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  Speaker 1: product um. But the vast majority of the accessory of
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  Speaker 1: that we put forth in the market are bought through
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  Speaker 1: fourteen thousand independent local retailers throughout the United States and
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  Speaker 1: also online. So tell us about when you put truck
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  Speaker 1: Hero together back in two thousand seven, was for a
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  Speaker 1: long time called th h I when you got ready
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  Speaker 1: for the I P O. We'll talk about that in
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  Speaker 1: a minute. You give it this this really fun name
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  Speaker 1: truck here. But why did you see this opportunity? What
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  Speaker 1: was what was missing in the market to use it?
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  Speaker 1: A hot truck hero is going to be the answer. Well,
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  Speaker 1: we formed t h I R truck here on two
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  Speaker 1: thousand seven. I work for the predecessor company x Tang,
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  Speaker 1: and we knew at that time that truck bed covers,
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  Speaker 1: which is still over sixty percent of our revenue today,
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  Speaker 1: we knew that category had a lot of white space
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  Speaker 1: growth opportunities into it because the penetration rate of bed
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  Speaker 1: covers the cover of your truck bed was very low.
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  Speaker 1: So from two thousand and seven all the way up
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  Speaker 1: through this year, we put together some great brands of
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  Speaker 1: high quality truck bed covers under the th HI truck
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  Speaker 1: Hero platform. If you've grown all these products into the marketplace,
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  Speaker 1: penetration is increasing. More and more people are putting truck
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  Speaker 1: bed covers and other accessories on our trucks today. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: you generate a lot of cash five million dollar fifteen sales.
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  Speaker 1: Your compound annual growth rate for five year sales. What
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  Speaker 1: sevent n free cash flow conversion? Why did you call
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  Speaker 1: off the I p O in November? Seems to me like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you've gotta you've got a business that's is
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  Speaker 1: ready to get a good price if you're doing so well.
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  Speaker 1: I agree, we're We've been a secret success story in
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  Speaker 1: Michigan for a long time. All of our products are
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  Speaker 1: you know, American made through our eight manufacturing facilities throughout
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  Speaker 1: the US. Look, all of our metrics are off the charts.
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  Speaker 1: But late last year, you know, the markets were a
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  Speaker 1: little bit thickle and as we went to market, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the week before Thanksgiving, you know, times are really at
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  Speaker 1: that moment just a little bit more chaotic than we
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  Speaker 1: felt comfortable with. Are you going to do the I
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  Speaker 1: p O? Now? What's what's what are you guys talking about? Well,
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  Speaker 1: right now, we're spending most of our time making sure
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  Speaker 1: we run the business well. We've always been great operators.
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  Speaker 1: We're gonna continue to do that. Um, but we're as
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  Speaker 1: we go throughout the year, we're gonna look all of
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  Speaker 1: our strategic opportunities and certainly an I p O would
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  Speaker 1: be something that I would view as being very fable
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  Speaker 1: for the for the company, but it's not something we
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  Speaker 1: have to do. How are your sales going this year?
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  Speaker 1: Because we know that the auto autmobile sales on just
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  Speaker 1: on fire last year. Truck sales are actually still doing
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  Speaker 1: quite well. It's a company like four that was a
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  Speaker 1: big part of their latest earnings growth. Right, But if
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  Speaker 1: it's Pete does that what does that mean for your company?
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  Speaker 1: And again, the sale you might the price you might
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  Speaker 1: fetch if you do the I P O. Now, well, look,
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  Speaker 1: you know Americans loved their trucks. I mean the F
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  Speaker 1: one fifty has been the number one selling vehicle for
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  Speaker 1: the last twenty four years. Out there again, Americans love trucks.
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  Speaker 1: But more importantly for us, our truck bed covers, which
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  Speaker 1: is a core product that we put forth in the market.
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  Speaker 1: Only one third of our sales are tied to new
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  Speaker 1: truck sales. Two thirds of our sales of all the
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  Speaker 1: products that we sell in truck bed covers are going
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  Speaker 1: into the fifty million unit registered truck market. So we're
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  Speaker 1: not tied to the two point five million or two
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  Speaker 1: point six million new trucks sold. We're actually tied to
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  Speaker 1: the greater fifty million registered trucks on the road. So
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  Speaker 1: how how are your sales? How does the consumer feel
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  Speaker 1: to you? As the consumers steady? Is the consumer pulling
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  Speaker 1: back a little? Uh as we hit mid years? The
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  Speaker 1: consumer picking up as we've done it all as all
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  Speaker 1: prior years. We are exceeding our budgeted forecast for the year,
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  Speaker 1: and sales this year are consistent with the annual growth
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  Speaker 1: rates that we've had in past years. What do you
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  Speaker 1: think is going to drive sales next? Are you worried
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  Speaker 1: about the feder reserve? Are you worried about finding really
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  Speaker 1: cool new cover, our new accessory? What's most important to
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  Speaker 1: keep your business growing? I think the biggest thing for
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  Speaker 1: me the truckbed cover category and some of the other
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  Speaker 1: accessories that we offer. The penetry ration rates are actually
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  Speaker 1: very low. If you look at bed liner as you
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  Speaker 1: look at toin products and floor liners, those penetration rates
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  Speaker 1: are bed covers only represent penetration rates. So we just
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  Speaker 1: launched a direct consumer campaign to go out there and
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  Speaker 1: advertise both on a broadcast and digital program on a
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  Speaker 1: national basis, to actually promote truck bed covers and you
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  Speaker 1: make them all in the United States. Well, we got
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  Speaker 1: we had many factories in eight different states. So from Michigan,
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  Speaker 1: the Tennessee, North Dakota, Springfield, Missouri, Los Angeles, all across
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  Speaker 1: the country. Well, congratulations, you're doing great. And when you
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  Speaker 1: want to announce the I p O, come on taking Stock.
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  Speaker 1: We're here. You can tell the world. I'll be very
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  Speaker 1: happy to Bill Reminder, president CEO of truck Hero, joining
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  Speaker 1: us from here in New York. He's based in ann Arbor, Michigan.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Kathleen Hayes. My co host Pim Fox is on assignment.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to be speaking and next to a legend
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  Speaker 1: of the markets, Leo Melvin, right here on Bloomberg Radio Tomorrow, Tuesday,
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