Episode 40: John Scepaniak talks contract crushing, expanding the business and more

John Scepaniak, director of aggregate operations at WD Scepaniak, joins the show to discuss the nature of the contract crushing business and how his company is adapting in 2025 to meet the demands of the market.
 
Scepaniak also shares how WD Scepaniak is venturing to new parts of the U.S. outside of its home state of Minnesota, and he details his personal approach to recruiting and building up the company’s workforce. 

Additionally, P&Q’s discussion with Scepaniak touches on some of his unique business ventures outside the industry – including agriculture and commercial real estate.

For 108 years, Pit & Quarry magazine has been the premier monthly aggregate processing information source. Through multiple platforms, we deliver the very latest in equipment and technology news and information that is critical for safely achieving the highest level of efficiency and profitability. Editors Kevin Yanik and Jack Kopanski cover the market in print, online and through e-newsletters. As respected industry insiders, they moderate the annual Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference and speak at industry conferences and meetings.

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. Also, follow us on YouTube to see full-length episodes of the podcast, watch our Road to Prosperity videos and see other clips from our travels and events.

Transcript

Kevin Yanik: Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Drilling Deeper. We've got episode 40 on tap, and our featured guest today is John Scepaniak from WD Scepaniak, based in Minnesota. Looking forward to introducing him here in a bit. John's been a regular at the Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference, and we've had him on the show once before. Looking forward to diving a little bit more deeply today about his company. They're a contract crusher based in Minnesota, but really going a whole lot of other new places these days. And so we'll look forward to a 20 minute long visit with John here, here in a bit. But as you notice, I don't have Jack Kopanski with me today. Jack is out this week, he's at the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association's Young Leaders Annual Meeting that's down in Savannah, Georgia. So we miss having Jack here, but he will be back with you on the next episode of Drilling Deeper, and I'll have more details for you on that on the back end of John's interview.

But looking forward to, again, sharing this interview that we did with John Scepaniak at AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo. Again, we gathered a lot of content down there, did a lot of guest interviews as producers were in St Louis, navigating the show, looking for new equipment and technology. John was among them, and as I mentioned, he's a contract crusher and business. It's a family business, and now they're in their third generation at this point. The company goes back about 55 years now, as they were established in 1970, based in Holdingford, Minnesota. But as I already mentioned, you know, they've done projects, and over a thousand projects by now in various states, including Colorado, Wyoming, the Dakotas. They've kind of centered around the central US as the home ground for their contract crushing business. But, you know, in talking to John in St. Louis during that AGG1 show, it seems like they're starting to look at other territories, expand a little bit, and John's going to get into that a little bit as to why they're exploring that at WD Scepaniak today.

WD Scepaniak annually produces more than seven million tons of aggregate materials. That's a lot of materials, and just to kind of measure up how they fit as a producer, at least in sand and gravel, the US Geological Survey put out their most recent top 100 sand and gravel producers list early this year. Believe it was February of '25, and WD Scepaniak ranked 12th on the top 100 sand and gravel producers list. So, you know, CRH tops that list. And you go down 11 spots, there's WD Scepaniak. They weren't among the top 100 crushed stone producers. But you know, because of the work they're doing in sand and gravel, they are among the largest sand and gravel producers in the entire United States. You know, during our interview, John is going to get into a little bit why they're operating in this kind of new mindset, or at least it sounds like a new mindset of being a national contractor, you know, as he's looking at the US now more as an opportunity as a whole, the winter weather up in Minnesota and the parts that they typically would serve, you know that has something to do with that. They're looking for more year-round work, but the company's customers largely reside in the concrete and asphalt space. That's the materials they're producing, so that's what a lot of their work is going towards.

We're going to hear from John a little bit about the workforce. That's a topic that I know he's passionate about. He's gone to events, and he puts a lot of time and energy into this area, really, because the future of whether it's WD Scepaniak, or any other producer or contracting company, it depends on having a strong, vibrant workforce. John has some thoughts on this area, and they've implemented some things into action at the company that he's going to share toward the back end of the interview as well.

And you'll also hear from John a little bit today in terms of some of the ventures he's doing outside of aggregates. He's a unique guy. Him and his brother have some business ventures aside from contract crushing, and we're gonna hear about that. And without further ado, let's bring John Scepaniak in. Again, our interview took place at AGG1 Aggregates Academy & Expo and we'll catch you on the back end of this one.

Interview Starts

KY: John, I wanted to talk more broadly about your business, about WD Scepaniak. I feel like we've probably known each other seven, eight plus years at this point, almost my entire tenure at Pit & Quarry. You guys are a contract crushing business. You move around a little bit, based in Minnesota. So for the readers and the listeners out there who don't know you, who aren't familiar with your business, tell us a little about what it is you do.

John Scepaniak: Yeah. So we're a contract aggregate producer, contract crusher, screening, washing. Our bread and butter of our business has evolved to provide our customers, wherever they may be, oftentimes at their sites with materials production. So, sometimes we are the standalone producer for that customer. Sometimes we operate adjacent to their own production line if there's … they need to increase production for a certain project or DOT project or something like that. That's just really what we've built our business on. As a result of that, it's taken us far and wide, probably 50-60 percent of our annual production and revenues come out of Minnesota and the Dakotas, but then the rest of it is filled elsewhere. Last year, we crossed Texas off our list. Right now we're in Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, those are all places we've been in the last handful of years. And you know, as a contractor, there's ebb and flow with that, customer needs maybe change. So we won't see a certain state or region for a while, but we're really up for anything. Anywhere and everywhere, you know? 

As we've grown, the world, in a lot of ways, has shrunk for us. I remember, even back when I was in high school, we got a job in Valley City, North Dakota, and that was four or five hours from the headquarters, and it was like this big deal. And it was a paradigm shift for us, because we were a contractor in the aggregate space, but we were somewhat localized, and that really capped what we could achieve from a growth standpoint. There's only so much market share in certain areas. But as we changed our focus and our thoughts and realized that this is the same application implemented across the United States, I really think that there's big opportunity for us to continue on that path. What we like is partnering with customers that are solid in their regions, and we like to just do a good job for them. I mean, whatever that may be.

KY: And your role is director of aggregate operations for WD Scepaniak?

JS: Correct.

KY: That's your title, John?

JS: Yep.

KY: Yeah, how much time are you spending … You talk about 50-60 percent of your market share is in Minnesota. So the rest, you're continuously outside of the state, hunting around, trying to find those deals. I guess, how much time do you put into that? I wonder how much of your growth outside of Minnesota has been word of mouth, doing a good job on this project, proving yourselves and then getting that second, third and so forth opportunity with other companies?

JS: Certainly. We don't do a whole lot of door knocking, per se. You know, really, it's just been built on that word of mouth kind of relationship, way of doing business. Pretty old school in that regard. You know, I'm thankful to say that it's been that way, because really, the conversation starts with our results and maybe the great job we did for customer XYZ. They have a partner or an adjacent competitor, and they kind of hear about us through that way, and then we're able to just bolt on and help them with what they do. So it's, yeah, the word of mouth thing has really served us well. Yeah, it's been good.

KY: What do you find competitive-wise in the contract crushing space? I mean, is it more competitive today versus when you got into that niche? I mean, I know it's a family business that goes back, you're third generation now, correct? So, I mean, what's that competitive landscape like out there for jobs, for projects, and what's 2025 activity look like as you're trying to get things moving here?

JS: I remember early on, we did a lot of public work, DOT projects. That was probably the majority of what we were doing. I kind of got sick of the heartache of putting a bid package together for a public job and just missing it by, you know, a sliver. We had a consensus that we wanted to push more into the relationship-oriented, not so much low bid, but more negotiated solutions-based business, and that's served us well. So, we don't see ourselves as a low cost provider, but we are the high performance provider, and that's served us well.

KY: So, I suppose what markets, what sorts of jobs are really fueling you guys today? Is it a mix, or does it one part of construction jobs?

JS: Yep, so a lot of our customers are in the concrete and asphalt space, so we're producing aggregates for their end use, right? We will do some DOT work. We're partnered with some selective road construction companies that'll have us do materials production for new asphalt material or some sort of, like recycling concrete demo, if there's like an interstate job where they're peeling up old concrete, and that's a big chunk of it as well.

KY: John, you had mentioned earlier, the whole idea of maybe wanting to venture to new parts, you know, you touch Texas and Oklahoma now. Wyoming and some other states that, you know, aren't necessarily touching Minnesota, but the idea of maybe going to the east coast or elsewhere, I guess, what could hold you back? Or why are you potentially thinking that there's opportunity across majority of the country at this point?

JS: So, growing up, the thought process was that Easter to Thanksgiving is our season. You run wide open, and then you have the winter off. Most of the employees get laid off. You do some winter maintenance, and you maybe have a lot of free time. As the business has grown and evolved, I don't really like stagnation. I don't like sitting on my hands in the winter and waiting for the next season to come up. So really, just by default, we've chased opportunity elsewhere. In Minnesota and the Dakotas, we're a seasonally restricted region, unless you're in a crushed stone application, but we've crushed granite in the winter, but your conveyor belts and your oils and fluids, it just complicates everything. So we looked at maybe moving south as a way for us to create a revenue stream year round, to be able to get equipment utilization year round, really just keep things turning all year long. I think for us, it makes sense from a business perspective, because like I said, you can get that equipment utilization on iron and justify the expense of it quicker.

KY: What adjustments, if any, John, going around the calendar at this point? So, it sounds like you worked through the winter this past winter in Texas, in the south. What did you learn, I suppose, by operating not seasonally, but by around the calendar?

JS: Sure. So, you know, there's maybe a bit of a changing of the guard internally, from an employee standpoint. We have some of those guys that have been with us for a long time, and they're like, "You know, I don't want to go to Texas. I want to go ice fishing in the winter." And we just have those conversations. And I asked them individually, "What are you looking at getting out of this? What is your desire and work capacity throughout the year?" So I can assign you accordingly, right? You know, we're fortunate enough to have teams comprised of some really talented and ambitious individuals that they want to work year round, they want to travel the country and see new things. And, you know, I think they really enjoy the responsibility and opportunity of the positions we put them in, and it's really a win-win. It gets them out of the cold, bitter winter, and they can see a little bit of the country and keep working. So really, we just, there's some internal shifting, and you gotta understand who's on board with that and who's not, and try and accommodate them accordingly.

KY: You're talking about the workforce here. I mean, we heard about that this morning at the NSSGA Annual Convention with … they had a CEO panel, they talked about the challenge with the workforce. You know, at our event, John the Pit & Quarry Roundtable, every year it comes up. You can't get away from it. I mean, you're living and breathing it on the front lines of our industry. It sounds like you're having some success there. I know that you've made efforts and strides,you know, going to events like the BuildWitt event, for example, to learn about culture, see what other people are doing. What have you done or adopted or observed, I suppose, in recent years, to try to chip away at the workforce issue that our industry has that maybe is impacting your company?

JS: Yeah. I think I've done a lot to try and understand the human perspective, maybe from the employee standpoint. I have a very siloed view of things because this is the only place that I've ever been employed at. You know, I've been mentored by family, so I have maybe a limited perspective on a lot of things. So I was aware of that, and I was like, "I gotta try and get an understanding of what people want out of life," right? So with that, I'm very involved in the hiring process to the point of where I am walking lockstep with our recruiter on interviewing people on the phone, in person, you know, really hiring for character, training for skill, you've heard that before that. That's really been my thought process on this. I can teach you all the hard skills, you know what I mean? But you need to want to do this.

So we lay our cards on the table. It's travel, work, okay?

KY: Mm-hmm.

JS: It's weekends, right? It's nights, it's out in the elements, but it's an adventure, and it's extremely rewarding. Are you in? And it's been very receptive. The nice thing I will add is, I think at our scale, we're able to offer a lot of the, you know, call them large company benefits. We run modern equipment, you know? We run high tech stuff. We're very leading edge in the aggregate space. But then also, every employee that I bring on board has my phone number. If they have a problem, they can call me. If they need to take … If it's Thursday and they have a family situation that they can't work this weekend, they can call me and I'll accommodate it. I really think we have a great blend of, you know, big company benefits, but we're low overhead, we're lean and mean and we're highly productive.

And I think with that comes a strong sense of purpose for each employee. They understand the relevancy and contribution that they have within our organization. So I think at the end of the day, when they shut the plant off, they know that what they did mattered. And that's what I think a lot of people are looking for now, is if you can define that sense of purpose, the what and the why behind what they're doing, that can inspire a lot of people to be on your team. And people can read through the illusion if you're just saying it, but they need to see you walk the walk.

That's one thing I enjoy about my family's company, is everybody involved with us, even from my dad. My dad could have retired decades ago, but he loves the industry, and he loves doing what he's doing. He loves being at work every day, as do I. I really ... the retirement word isn't something that comes into conversation for us because we're just so ingrained in this. I think our employees see that, our level of involvement, and I think it means a lot to them, you know? I feel strongly about that, and I think that's been a huge contributor to our success. Not to say that we don't have any employment issues or shortcomings, but I think we're in a better position now than we were 10 years ago, because we were aware of those problems and we worked progressively to solve them.

KY: Yeah, I was going to ask, was there a point? You just mentioned 10 years ago, but sounds like there was some transformation that took place. This is an ongoing challenge for our industry. So I guess what actively made you guys decide, "Hey, we want to do something to solve this." Because again, I know that this is something that you're passionate about, and it sounds like you're making a progressive effort to try to connect with people.

JS: Yeah, I actually think there's a residual benefit of us moving to, I'll call it a national contractor. I just recruit from anywhere, doesn't matter where your home address is. Like the things I explained, it's travel work, it can be year round, it can be seasonal, kind of depending on what you're looking for, but you're going to be on the road. So we lay our cards on the table, recruit from anywhere. We have … the core of our business, our core employment force is still from our home radius, I'll call it. Localized, and those guys are hitting the road traveling, but to fill some of those gaps we'll maybe do some recruiting from here, there and everywhere. There is a strong network of people that – in the United States – that do want to do this type of work and travel. You just gotta dig. You gotta seek them out, you know? And it is a lot of work on the recruiting end. I give the, not sales pitch, but essentially outline what this is to people probably 100 times a week on the phone. So it's a lot, but it's well worth the effort.

Sponsor Break

KY: Now, a word from a Drilling Deeper sponsor. Crisp Industries, located in Bridgeport, Texas, is a trusted leader in aggregate material handling systems. With 48 years of experience, they design, fabricate and install customized systems for the aggregate, sand, gravel and mining industries. Known for quality, innovation and integrity, Crisp delivers turnkey solutions that maximize efficiency and meet demanding project requirements. For more information, call 940-683-4070. Again, Crisp Industries is located in Bridgeport, Texas. And now, back to the show.

End Sponsor Break 

KY: John, just taking a step back, looking at 2025, what's keeping you up at night these days? It doesn't sound like the workforce maybe, as it was 10 years ago, but I'm sure there's something. There's always something that the mind drifts to in the evenings or early in the morning. I guess, what's that thing for you? Or what are those things that you find your mind wandering off to these days? Or maybe you found peace in everything. I don't know.

JS: No, I …

KY: As it relates to work, I suppose, John,

JS:Yeah, no I really try and be proactive in solving the problems. And lately I've been explaining it like this, okay? Say we're fully staffed, we have every seat on the bus covered. Well, then we're going to want to pursue more work for these people to do, okay? So you lock down more contracts, more commitments with more customers across a wider footprint. Well, now you need more iron, okay? So now you got to solve that problem. Once you get the iron, well you don't want to have any machines sitting stagnant, now you get more people. So it's like this constant chasing your tail, so to speak. And I think you look at any business who's scaled successfully, that's kind of been the cyclical pattern they've been on.

KY: Yeah.

JS: So I'm trying to be aware of that and make sure our bases are covered, maybe one or two steps ahead of myself. You know, it's been a lot of fun. When I look back on the last 10 odd years of the growth trajectory we've been on, you know, I feel somewhat accomplished, but I look at that growth and it makes me very hungry for the future and what we can accomplish. I know as we enter new levels of the industry, there's going to be some things that, you know, we need to adjust and change as we grow, and different roles that will need to be adopted or implemented in the organization. But, you look at, I'll just pick an example. For our yellow iron and our crushing and screening machinery, for that matter, from a service level 10 years ago, we relied almost solely on the dealer network. With our growth and the footprint we're covering, we needed to bring a lot of that in house. So at this point in time we have like over half a dozen, I think right now it's probably seven or eight full time mechanical people that are supporting a lot of what we're doing in the field, just for yellow iron, you know? We have a couple of resident mechanics that are in our home shop every day of the week. And then we have a couple traveling people that stay ahead of PMs and things like that. And it's just, it's good. We're … I feel really excited about where we're at and where we're going, and I'm thankful to be a part of it.

KY: We've talked … This conversation centered a lot around your contract crushing services. You're a busy guy with that alone, John, but I know you guys do your own kind of custom equipment fabrication. There's some other unique things you do that are completely unrelated to aggregates. So, can you tell our audience a little about some of your other ventures or ventures you're a part of?

JS: Yeah, and a lot of these things pale in comparison in terms of the time occupancy of the main business, you know? I need to keep the main thing the main thing, that's always been the focus. But, my brother and my one cousin, we have an agricultural business that we run. We're doing cash crop farming. That just kind of started, it was really Tony's project, and it's something that he spearheads and loves, and it's his true passion. And Brian and I are involved in it as well. It's good, it's a lot of fun. It's refreshing, because it's a little bit change of pace. When you need to just stop thinking about thinking about aggregates, you can go kind of think about farming for a little bit.

You know, there's some other things, commercial real estate, you know? I, myself, am partnered in an e-commerce company, which, you know, a lot of that stuff is just interesting. For me, it's interesting because I can draw parallels in terms of like processes and problem solving that I can adapt to the main thing. So, I look at it really as a proving ground or a way to make my problem solving abilities exponential, if that makes sense? Kind of speed run stuff by trying to run into more issues and problems to solve. So then I can take those lessons and implement them in the main business.

KY: Plus you mentioned, I don't know if you want to get into the storage locker thing?

JS: Oh, yeah.

KY: But it seems like there's nothing you're not willing to get into at the end of the day.

JS:Yep, no that's incorporated in the commercial real estate situation. We have a self storage facility, and working with some new developments, with some new sites and acquisitions. You know, that is a very interesting world, because it's, I don't want to say hands off, but it's, you can set things up to really run themselves remotely. But that's been very interesting. I know you and I were talking last night about the Storage Wars craze.

KY: Right.

JS: Trust me, oftentimes if there's one where somebody's not paying the bill, there's nothing in there that you want. So it's been fun, but it was something that I just wanted to try. And then my one cousin, Jake, he has a facility on his own as well, so I took a lot of lessons of kind of what he cut his teeth on doing in that market where he has his positioned, and it's just kind of been a fun side project. I know it makes me sound like a crazy person when I say that's what we do to relax, but we're all wired that way, you know? My entire family, we're … The entrepreneur word gets thrown around. I don't really love that word, but I think we're just … we love business, we love problem solving, we love helping our customers and clients, whoever they may be, whatever they need solved. It's just, it's ingrained in us, you know? We're problem solvers.

KY: Well, what's the next enterprise for John Scepaniak?

JS: Oh, for me in particularly? I think I better cool it. I like my main craft, you know? I love being a husband and father, and I think that's all I should really commit time to right now. But, you know, speaking larger to the organization, you know, land acquisition, pit and quarry development, getting some new sites rolling in greenfielded, which anybody who's listening and has experienced that, there's plenty of problems to solve there with greenfielding. So, that's something we're looking at doing. Because really, our business was founded on being a contractor. You know, we really neglected acquiring and developing our own resources. That's something we're leaning into.

The only other things, you know, just with the nature of our business, like you had spoke, manufacturing and maintaining our own equipment. Just by design, we've brought a lot of our fabrication in house. We can build a lot of things and fix a lot of things and create a lot of things for our own needs internally. And I think in the next 5-10 years we'll see some progressive developments in that direction, which will be exciting. We'll be able to, you know, build a lot of things for ourself and continue to do so.

Interview Ends

KY: Thanks again to John Scepaniak. John, it's always great to catch up with you. Hope you enjoyed listening to this one again, and I'm trying to think back on when I met John, it was probably seven or eight years ago, as he's been a loyal reader of Pit & Quarry and our sister publication, Portable Plants, for a number of years. He's been to the Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference probably half a dozen times. And actually, we recently had John in attendance at the 2025 Pit & Quarry Hall of Fame induction ceremony, and we appreciated him and being a part of that celebration as well.

You know, I kind of mentioned it at the top of the program, but John not only has a passion for the aggregate industry and the work he's doing with WD Scepaniak, but for everything he pursues. I think that extends to the storage locker business or the agriculture that he's doing with other family members. Seems like he puts a lot of thought, time and energy into the things that he goes about. And, you know, I have a lot of respect for John and really value him as a friend and somebody who has been a friend of the magazine as well. So again, John, thanks for getting together. We'll look forward to seeing you at events down the road here, you know, hopefully at the 2026 Roundtable. And if you want to hear more from John, we actually had him as one of our featured guests on episode 38 of Drilling Deeper. So, you can hear what John had to say about AGG1 2025 in St Louis. You know, I think we cut about six minutes from John's interview for that episode. Again, that was episode 38, which you can access at drillingdeeperpodcast.com. If you want to go way back in the podcast realm with Pit & Quarry, you can go back to episode nine, as John was the featured guest on episode nine of Drilling Deeper. So, if you want to hear what he had to say back in 2023, I'd encourage you to go, again, to drillingdeeperpodcast.com and seek out episode nine, as that features John Scepaniak.

Well, what else is happening at Pit & Quarry? You know, as I sit here toward the very end of April in Pit & Quarry's Cleveland office, we're starting to get the first quarter reports from the public aggregate producers in. By the time you're listening to this, we're going to have reports on pitandquarry.com from the nation's top two producers, that being Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta. We do already have some insight from Holcim, which was the first to put out its quarterly reports, or first quarter report industry wide. They talked a little bit about weather and how the first quarter, weather was a factor that kind of impeded growth. And I'm sure we're gonna hear about that a little bit more from some of the other public producers. That was a narrative we heard a little bit in 2024 as well, particularly in the first quarter in parts. And I think, you know, if you're up in John Scepaniak's region, for example, up in the Upper Midwest, you know, that was certainly something that kind of bled into the second quarter of 2024.

So, it's interesting where we are at this point in time, thinking about the last few years with aggregate production volumes. You know, we want to have some dry, warm, aggregate producing conducive weather months in order to get production where we want, because we're seeing volumes dip from quarter to quarter and year to year. Demand still strong, but the last thing we want as we're getting into peak production season here across the US is for wet weather, for record level or high levels of rainfall. So, we're already hearing about that in the first quarter, depending on where you are, and hopefully that is not already impeding your second quarter here at the beginning of May.

But we also at the magazine, while we're keeping tabs on what's happening with those first quarter reports from the public producers, you should soon be receiving your print edition for the Pit & Quarry May issue. We've got a crushing and hydraulic breaking special pull-out supplement in that. We feature a few companies from around the country, including Dutra Group, K&S Gravel and North Central Aggregates. We've also spotlighted Blue Water Industries in the May edition of Pit & Quarry as well, as I was down at Blue Water in Davenport, Florida in March. They were showcasing, along with McLanahan Corporation, a brand new wash plant that they have online, and it's been online there for a couple years at this point. So, we spotlight what took place there at Blue Water in Davenport, Florida in the pages of this month's edition of the magazine. Talked to Steve Tilquist, operations manager of sand mines, while I was in Florida, and you know, he shared how Blue Water's already replicated that McLanahan plant, not only once, but how they're doing that a second time at a Blue Water operation elsewhere. So, an interesting case study there in washing and classifying involving Blue Water Industries and McLanahan Corporation. So check that out, again in the Pit & Quarry May edition of the magazine.

And speaking of Florida, I wanted to remind everybody that we're still a ways out from the 2026 Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference, but that is going to be returning to Florida in January of 2026. Specifically, we're going to be at La Playa Golf and Beach Resort. That's there in Naples in southwest Florida. And you know, anybody who's interested in joining us, I encourage you to visit pitandquarryroundtable.com. Same goes for equipment manufacturers and dealers from around the country and into Canada. If you're interested in partnering with Pit & Quarry on our annual Roundtable in 2026 you can learn more at pitandquarryroundtable.com.

We've already got some things in the works for the next episodes of Drilling Deeper as well. The next episode beyond today's episode 40 is going to drop on Tuesday May 17th, and we're actually going to be featuring PPIthat day, Precision Pulley & Idler. We had Allen Mathes, the outside sales manager at PPI, visit with Pit & Quarry's Jack Kopanski at AGG1, and Allen is going to discuss one and why wing pulleys are used, as well as why angled wings have become so popular. Additionally, Allen is going to share the history of PPI's herringbone wing pulley, including the broad range of products available within that line, and that includes PPI's plate constructed HBW. Again, we'll be dropping that episode on Tuesday May 17th, so you'll be able to access that at drillingdeeperpodcast.com, or on your preferred podcast platform.

And for those wondering what's even beyond that, we've got episode 42 in the works here at Pit & Quarry. We're going to be getting together, actually this week as I'm sitting down shooting this episode. We've got Armada Materials Rob Duke, who's going to be visiting with me. You know, Rob's the founder of Armada, and he's going to be appearing on our June 3rd episode, discussing the history of Armada Materials, which is a very young company that was established in 2023. Prior to Armada, Rob led the south division of CRH, which was a $3 billion business that had about 6,500 employees. They covered aggregates, asphalt, ready-mix concrete, bulk material transportation and more. So, I'm looking forward to catching up with with Armada Materials Rob Duke here in the coming weeks, we'll put that interview out for you on Drilling Deeper, and I'm sure our conversation is going to steer a bit toward M&A as Armada Materials recently completed a deal in Kentucky, and I'm guessing they're looking outward even more with additional M&A activity. So, look for our visit with Armada Materials’ Rob Duke in the coming weeks as well.

With that, I'm going to conclude episode 40. We'll have Jack Kopanski with you back on episode 41 and again, want to thank John Scepaniak of WD Scepaniak for getting together with me for our special guest interview today. Well, everybody out there, hope you have a great spring production season. Hope that gets off and running. If you're just getting into it in the northern parts of the country, but until next time, we'll see you.