Episode 72: What Texas is teaching the aggregates industry

Texas continues to lead the nation in construction growth, and the ripple effects are being felt across the aggregates industry.

On Episode 72, Pit & Quarry’s Kevin Yanik and Jack Kopanski examine what’s fueling the Lone Star State’s momentum and why producers, manufacturers and suppliers nationwide are paying close attention.

Following a recent visit to Texas, Jack sits down with John Crisp, CEO of Crisp Industries, and Duane Winter, the company's president, to discuss the market conditions they’re seeing firsthand. From the explosive growth of data centers to expanding residential communities and ongoing infrastructure investment, the Crisp execs share why demand for aggregates and processing equipment remains strong across much of the state.

The conversation also explores how Texas has maintained its growth even as other regions have experienced slower activity. John and Duane discuss independent producers and contractors, shifting construction trends and why optimism remains high despite broader economic uncertainty.

After the interview, Kevin and Jack catch listeners up on the latest from Pit & Quarry – including upcoming industry events, the 2027 Pit & Quarry Roundtable & Conference, Hall of Fame nominations, recent podcast episodes and what's ahead in the magazine’s August and September editions.

Whether you’re tracking the impact of data centers, looking for insight into one of the country’s strongest construction markets or simply curious about where the industry is headed next, Episode 72 episode offers valuable perspective from two leaders who are seeing the Texas boom unfold every day.

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

SPEAKER_03 0:06

Welcome in to another episode of Drilling Deeper. I'm Kevin Yannick, editorial director of Pitt and Quarry. Today we're taking a trip to one of the country's busiest construction markets to hear firsthand what's driving demand, where the opportunities are, and why Texas continues to stand apart for much of the rest of the country. And to help me do that, I want to welcome in managing editor Jack Kapanski. Jack, how are you doing here today?

SPEAKER_02 0:27

Fantastic, Kevin. Glad to be here as always. Excited to uh excited to talk a little Texas, talk a little data centers, and uh just everything that's going on in the Lone Star State.

SPEAKER_03 0:37

Yeah, you were down there, I guess it was the month of June for the TACA annual meeting, episode 70. If you listen, you know, we had Dr. Aniban Basou, Matt Arnold from Knife River, Andrew Pinkerton, again, episode 70. You sat down with those guys at the Tac annual meeting in San Antonio. And and if you haven't listened to that one yet and you're interested in this one today at all on Texas for the most part, you know, I'd encourage you to listen to that. But but Jack, maybe set the stage for us a little bit as you you got the chance to sit down with a couple of guys from Crisp Industries, had some some great insights. I had a chance to listen to the interview before we turn on the mics here today, and I'm looking forward to sharing this one with our our listeners here today.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Yeah, no, no, it was definitely a valuable conversation. It was sort of uh I was down in Texas, like you mentioned, with uh with our associate Dino Vatanza. Um, you know, we we stopped at Crisp kind of as a as a first stop before we headed on to Taca, Taca. And um, you know, it it was the first time I got the chance to kind of meet John Crisp and Dwayne Winter, who is, you know, sort of stepping into some some leadership with with the with the company. Both really good guys. Um, it was really great talking with them. And they are they're kind of in a in a very unique spot. And I've been talking about it in recent episodes, that idea of talking to talking to people or specifically dealers who kind of get their own perspective, they get the manufacturer perspective, they get the customer perspective. Crisp is kind of in that scenario plus. They, you know, they they they deal equipment, but they also do some custom fab in in a few other states. Um they're in an especially unique position to kind of talk about and experience all the growth that's been going on within the state. And uh, you know, again, as you mentioned with our with a couple episodes ago talking to Andrew and Matt, there has been plenty of growth to talk about, uh, really centered around data centers. Um, just to kind of put some things in perspective, I was doing a little digging before this episode, trying to get some national perspective of where Texas stands and how things are kind of looking nationally with this uh really incredible data center boom. According to an April study done by Pew Research Center, Texas has the second most operational data centers and the second most planned data centers among um among the states in the U.S. They have 296 operational and 170 planned data centers right now. They are behind only Virginia that has 398 operating data centers and 287 planned. So, I mean that's a pretty high bar to set. So coming in coming in second to something like that is certainly nothing to sneeze at. Um, just again, for some additional perspective, rounding out the top five, we had California with 277 operational and 54 planned. Illinois had a hundred uh has 193 operational and 123 planned, and Georgia has 94 operational and 141 planned data centers. Uh, because we're in Ohio, uh, I feel I should also just note that Ohio just missed the top five. Uh they came in at number six in Pew study with 166 operational data centers and 57 planned. Granted, this is, you know, this is from April too, so we're three, four months out from that at this point. Um so I mean, who knows what who knows what has changed, how those numbers have increased. Um, just some of the most recent data I was able to find. Um what we and we really heard a lot of the same stuff. I heard a lot of the same stuff, you know, from Andrew and Matt, and also from John and Duane once we get into this conversation here. And it really matches Pew's overall analysis, showing that the South and Midwest uh are among the most are are where the most data centers are planned. Uh currently in the South, they're you know, looking at the South as a whole, there are uh 1,209 operational data centers with 754 planned. And in the Midwest, there are 655 operational data centers and 419 planned. Throughout the US, looking sort of looking whole country, uh, there are more than 3,000 operational data centers and more than 1,500 in various stages of development. Now, I know what you're thinking. Jack, Kevin, you said we were gonna talk about Texas. Let's go back to Texas now for a second. So looking at that national number, the 3,000 operational and 1,500 planned data centers, Texas, again, coming in at 296 in operation and 170 planned, the state makes up almost 10% of the nation's operational data centers and is just over 11% of planned data centers. It's one state. One state doing those numbers. Um, and they really shows no signs of slowing down. Um, again, just from what we've been hearing and seeing going on in the state. Like you mentioned, we heard a couple episodes from Andrew and Matt who were talking about how the Texas miracle is alive and well and what they've seen going on in the state of late. Um, and then in in this interview, you're gonna hear from John and Dwayne kind of talk about much of the same. You're just gonna hear that, you know, they're they're experiencing a lot of growth as a company, their customers are growing a lot, the manufacturers they work with are growing a lot. Um, and they obviously also get into the data center boom in and of itself, and they've, you know, they've what they've seen throughout the state and in their specific areas that they cover as well. Um, the thing that kind of struck me, and you know, we'll get into this a little bit after the interview, they talked about how residential construction and continued infrastructure investment has also helped drive the state's economy. I feel like data centers and infrastructure we're kind of used to. Hearing someone say that residential is kind of helping drive things is is a bit different from what we've been hearing and seeing of late. Um, sort of been one of the weaker subsectors of construction lately, so kind of an interesting perspective there. You know, they just really provide what what I thought were a lot of really valuable insights into a state that seems to always be on top of whatever construction-related metric you're looking at. So, you know, whatever, whatever you thought of Texas, you're probably right. You know, whatever, whatever growth you're hearing about is is probably what's going on. So uh appreciate John and Dwayne sitting down with me here for this interview. Hope you all enjoy it. And uh yeah, just just a lot of a lot of good insights about what's going on in just one of the the most booming states in the country right now.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yeah, it was I was really kind of mesmerized just listening to these guys, and again, looking forward to sharing this one with Dwayne Winter and John Crispier in just a moment. But but John mentioned during the interview we're about to play here, Jack, he's been in the industry for about 50 years. I'm not sure how long Dwayne's been been around, but I mean a lot of experience there, a lot of knowledge, those guys are tapped in. I think their their model, I mean, is a business at their crisp industries is is pretty unique too. I mean, you talked a little bit too about uh like the fab work that they do, but but they're also in distribution in a few states. So so because of the different dynamics that they're playing into, they offer some unique perspective and happy to share that and relay that here today on drilling deeper. Absolutely. I think we should play this one. We've been teasing for a bit here. So maybe without further ado, here's John Crisp and Dwayne Winter of Crisp Industries.

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Gentlemen, thanks for making some time for me today. Good to be here. You know, a lot of exciting stuff going on, especially in the state of Texas. We'll we'll we'll get to that here in kind of a second. But you know, just for crisp industries, you know, we're almost at the midway point of the year here. How's the first half of 2026 um treated you guys so far?

SPEAKER_01 7:21

It's been good. I mean, we're on our pace of pretty much 25. I mean, this 26 years been going great.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

So yeah, we've had several uh projects going, a lot of smaller stuff this time, but uh a lot of pump and pipe work going on right now. Uh pump and pipe has been really busy the first half of the year. Um uh construction side has been doing well as well. We've got uh a couple big projects going on right now, and uh should wrap those up here in a month or two and uh looking for our next big big one. You know, we're every day working on bids and uh working on other projects to see where our next one's coming from. But uh so yeah, yeah, things have been good. We we normally stay six to eight months out. So um things have been real good since really 18. We worked right on through COVID and uh had no slowdown there. Um just we've had several good projects. We've actually had three projects, pretty good size projects going at one time and uh three, four, and five. Um it has gone a little bit slower this year, but uh I I don't know what what that pertains to or the reasoning behind it, but uh we're we're still, you know, trying to catch our breath every day. Should we have to work working just trying to keep things rolling?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

So you know, as a rule that's pretty normal us to have two or three fairly large projects going and several smaller ones on the side because everybody has small breakdowns or needs some addition. So sure. But usually we've always got at least a couple of projects going together. And uh anyway, it keeps, you know, from one deadline to the next. You just finish one and you're somewhere else in another project. Absolutely. So it's it's it's pretty good. You know, it's been the the aggregate business with last highway bill has created a lot of work over the last four or five years. So it's it's been beneficial to our community with the crushers and our employees, everybody's had pretty good stable work environment for a good long while here in this area. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

So you talk about those projects, you talk about the work environment in this area. You know, we've been hearing kind of nonstop about the growth and the sort of development that that Texas is seeing, and obviously being, you know, being a Texas company, can you guys just kind of share a little bit about what what you've seen in that regard, whether it be infrastructure developments, whether it be more on the residential or non-residential side, what what have you guys kind of been seeing or following as far as you know the growth within Texas is concerned?

SPEAKER_01 10:11

It's all of that. The residential growth has been phenomenal. There's people moving here. There is five new developments going on in Bridgeport, Texas right now. So uh from the city area to all out in the country. We've got cities being built out here 15 miles out of town that used to be sort of the middle of nowhere. And I mean, there's cities out there now, right? It's crazy. And um the roads, uh the growth is coming so fast, we're outgrowing the roads before they can be built and put in place. And uh so it's uh it's created a great economic environment in Texas even back in 08 and 9 when the economy fell. The economy was still pretty decent here in Texas even back then. So uh I I think Texas is fortunate having a it's a right-to-work state. We don't have a state income tax. There's a lot of incentives for people to want to move and live in Texas, and that has been pushed with our governor here in Texas, and uh he's very aggressive on bringing new business to Texas all the time, so it's it's created uh a very strong economic environment in the state of Texas in general. Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

So and really here in North Texas, you've got Plano and Frisco and the Kenny, that whole area is just blowing up. Uh down by Houston, you've got there's a county there. Uh I was uh watching a TikTok the other day, and they can't keep up with the growth there. They're the fastest growing county in the nation. Wow. And so uh you just got it all over the state, between San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Dallas, you just there's there's lots and lots of uh work going on in this area. And you know, it brings our competitors into town too. We've got lots of people coming in trying to to cater to the same uh aggregate industry that we are.

SPEAKER_01 12:17

Right. We've seen growth in the far outreaches of West Texas where you know there's some frac sand mines there. Sure. It's it's amazing to go some of the towns you just got to have 3,000 people and you go down there five, six, seven thousand, and got big man camps out how to touch it down. Yeah, it's uh it's uh it's all over Texas. I don't believe anyone's getting left behind. And I know down in the valley business is really good right now in the the deep Rio Grande Valley of Texas. So it's it's very broad considering how big Texas is. It's amazing that all these areas are being very viable right now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

You know, so love to hear that. So given given all that, you know, you kind of just hit on all of the development, all the growth going on, I'm I'm sure it has to be sort of a beneficial environment for your customers as well. What are you what are you kind of hearing from your customers? What's keeping them busy? And uh I I guess sort of how are they how are they experiencing all that's been going on?

SPEAKER_01 13:15

You know, when the when the interest rates were lower, they were saying that uh highway infrastructure was 60% of the business in Texas, about 40 residential. And I think maybe it's probably uh closer to 70-30 right now, I think, just from listening to people talk about highway infrastructure work compared to residential. But it seems like all the residential builders are feel like that we're on the threshold of the building business and residential area picking up dramatically here in the next six months to a year or so.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

Uh and there are some pockets around too. These data centers pop up. Some of our customers are just swamped with trying to get material over to a data center.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

So Leverett, what he said, there's an article I read the other day, they're trying to get it. My understanding is the counties are having a little bit of issue because they don't have any control of the deals made at the higher state levels and federal level and data centers, and that they want to get a little more control, they'll control the growth instead of having to be reactive to it. But they said from different sizes, you know, data centers, you got monsters being built in Texas. Smaller, they said there's 471 data centers being built or presently built or in in production in the state of Texas. Yeah. I I just never thought about them being that many data centers. That's astounding. Yes. Yeah. So but I know they got a a huge one being built in Amarillo right now. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:53

And there's a also Abilene. Abilene. The whole town of Abilene has exploded, and it's I feel like it's probably a short-term uh explosion, but uh man, it's just it's kind of like the Wild West. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

There's an intermediary gas company here that's working as intermediary and just bought a ranch. Like they're saying 5,500 acres out west of town here, about 12 miles, 13. And they're saying that Google is going to build a very large deficit right there. It'll have two or three of its own in-house power plants. So it's that's that will create a lot of work, especially in the aggregate business for truckers and uh the quarries and you know. Yeah, hopefully all those little bit.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Absolutely, 100% for sure. Um, so you know, obviously kind of kind of gave a good look at at what's going on within the state. You know, I I I know you guys obviously do some manufacturing, but as a dealer, I feel like you guys are positioned very uniquely and very beneficially, where you kind of hear and see from the manufacturer side, you hear and see from the producer side, kind of get that that broad perspective on the industry as a whole. What's maybe your temperature of the broader aggregate industry as we approach the halfway point of 2026 based on what you've been seeing and hearing?

SPEAKER_01 16:14

I believe it's good for everybody. You know, we're very diversified, as DJ's referenced our pumping pipe division. We we go all over America doing water type projects there. Our construction building new plants is taking us. We we try to stay more of a four or five state area, but we've gone as far as Maine, California, you know, up Wisconsin, but Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, we stay pretty busy really, just uh trying to be choice and pick the jobs we want closer to home. Yeah. You know. But uh home is about 500 miles away from here anymore. So uh, but we rent a lot of portable equipment, and that seems to have really picked up this year more so than last year, and that uh there seems to be a lot of contractors and smaller mom and pops doing some expansion work. So I you know, we always get tendency to focus on the big majors, the Heidelbergs and Mark Marietta and Old Castle, C CRH type companies, and uh but it seems like a lot of the independents are staying pretty busy as well right now. So the broad spectrum is there seems to be enough work for everyone out there. Great, you know. So uh I haven't heard anybody saying they're busy just down in the dumps and they're not doing anything. I'm I'm not hearing that, you know. That's good.

SPEAKER_00 17:43

But it's hard to tell with us in other states, you know. I have no idea what's going on in Utah. Right, right. Those type of places, but uh yeah, the in the south and around the states surrounding Texas that we do most of our business in, everything's really good.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

So and John was telling me uh before we started recording here, uh you guys serve Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana. Is that right?

unknown 18:11

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

And what we consider distribution. Distribution. And when it comes to building plants, I mean we're gonna go wherever we feel a plant fits in with our other projects and schedules, and sometimes we have to turn one down because it could be too big. Most of the time we don't turn down too big, we turn it down because of the time frames. Sure. The timelines. If we've got three plants going, we can't take another monster project that's say has a 12, 14 month expected time frame. So we try to balance it. We always want our customers, we try to be as honest as we can up front with them. If we can't meet a time frame, we tell them, but we just can't meet that time frame. Fair.

SPEAKER_00 18:51

And especially if it's two or three states away and you've got another job that's right in your back door, you're always going to take that back door job.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Sure. Naturally. So that usually determines a lot of the projects that we have. It's all about timing, you know, and how how large a project it is. But makes sense. We we turn out massive amounts of fabrication here, so we it allows us to do multiple projects simultaneously.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, that's great to hear.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

We've expanded our paint shop three times over the last 10, 15 years, and that continues to always seem to be the bottleneck. Sure. Getting getting it through paint. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Right, of course. You know, obviously a lot of positivity here, both in Texas and you know the regions you serve, just just distributionally and beyond, you know, in the manufacturing realm. What are maybe your hopes or expectations for the rest of the year for yourself, for your customers, for the industry, um, as we look ahead to kind of the last half of 2026 and beyond?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

Keep our customers calling us. We real it's real simple. We we try to take care of them, and they all do a very good job of taking care of us. I mean, there's there's one thing, I'm 50 years in this business, and I'm telling you that aggregate producers are continue to always grow and have new ideas or want to make new products, and and that's what keeps us all busy and keep us going, you know. And uh our hope is the same hope it's always been that long as there's people out there living the American dream and pushing to do bigger and better things, and that includes the plant builders, the people running plants, they always want to do more progressive things, and that's what creates job opportunities for all of us. Right?

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Excellent. Well, gentlemen, I um I'm appreciative of your time. Uh some great insights there. Thanks for thanks for sharing all that with me, and best of luck to the both of you and Crisp the rest of this year and beyond.

SPEAKER_03 20:51

All right. Well, that was John Crisp and Dwayne Winter of Crisp Industries visiting with Jack Capancy. Jack, great interview. Glad those guys are willing to sit down with you during your visit to Bridgeport, Texas. It's been a minute since I've been down there, but interesting to hear kind of what's happening here in 2026. Doesn't sound like things have slowed down in recent years. If anything, it sounds like things are picking up even more, more momentum, more steam. And you know, I jotted down some notes kind of listening to that interview before we turned the mics on here uh here, Jack. But one thing John said, and I guess Dwayne kind of reiterated reiterated a little bit, but just talking about how you know the small towns in the middle of nowhere, all of a sudden now there's cities popping up down in Texas. And Dwayne specifically referenced Abilene, Texas, which he says exploding. It's kind of like the wild, wild west. So um a lot to take away from that. Jack, I suppose what what do you kind of zero in on as you reflect on your on your sit down there with the crisp guys?

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Yeah, you know, there there were definitely definitely several points that kind of stuck out to me. I I think, you know, again, kind of going back to the conversation we were having before the interview, I think what surprised me the most was when John talked about how strong the residential growth has been in Texas. You know, again, you lift you look back a few episodes ago. When we talk to uh Dr. Ani Bombasu, really when we've been talking to economists or anyone throughout the industry of late, you'll really kind of hear that residential hasn't been that strong. Interest rates are still high. You know, they've the the the multifamily sector has a lot of has a lot of supply, or the supply is outpacing the demand. Um just just sort of a lot of factors playing against the residential sector sector. So to hear that it's been strong in their area has been has been promising. He talks about five new developments happening in the Bridgeport area, you know, obviously a a a booming city in its own right. I know in the drive Dino and I took from the airport to uh Crisp's Crisp's headquarters. I mean, just on the side of the high just on the side of the road going down the highway. I mean, you saw you saw construction on uh housing development over here, you saw what looked like some big warehouse or manufacturing center on the left. I mean, just the the the the boom in Bridgeport is very, very real. So that's that's definitely been cool. You mentioned kind of that anecdote about how areas that used to sort of be in the middle of nowhere now have cities in them. And a a point from Duane that I think is that that I I keep coming back to is that it has North uh or Texas in particular has the fastest growing county in the U.S. by population, and that's Harris County, obviously home to Houston. Uh I think there's one or two counties that may outpace it in terms of percentage growth, but in terms of pure population, Harris County is uh is is experiencing a lot of growth, and obviously a lot of that is due things to a large part in uh to data centers. You mentioned Abilene, Dwayne mentioned Abilene, um really he even kind of said it might be a short-term explosion, but it's it's exploding nonetheless. John, John touched on, you know, Google building another large data center in the area, another company buying up 186 acres within the 5,500-acre Veal Ranch in Fort Worth to build a data center. I mean, sort of, you know, where where isn't there growth in Texas is kind of what it sounds like. So just uh, you know, and then obviously just great to hear at the end of that interview sort of a positive view of the aggregate industry as a whole, optimistic about this year and beyond. So um just hope I mean, certainly there's no signs of it slowing, but you know, just here's to hope and here's to hoping for the best to continue in in Texas with crisp industry and and everyone down in that state.

SPEAKER_03 24:13

Kind of another takeaway for me too, Jack, on Texas, it's that Texas is kind of an economy unto itself. I mean, we we heard that through the insights that John and Duane provided. I think everybody kind of understands that. They that down in Texas, they kind of operate to the beat of their own drum, you know, they're regulatory friendly, you know, they're making investments. It's probably the number one or number two, I'm guessing number one, population growth growth state in the country, and it has been for some time. A lot of industries, you know, and some of the the higher tax states are moving to Texas. So, you know, with all that, a lot of focus today on data centers, but with all of that, I mean, people you talk about residential. I mean, maybe that feeds into why there's some residential growth in Texas, where is for the rest of the country it's a little bit slow, maybe just stagnant even. Um I think John even made a good reference point, not something I've really necessarily thought about or heard before, but John Crisp during the interview mentioned how during the Great Recession in 08-09, obviously the country was was suffering. It was it was probably the you know, maybe besides COVID in 2020 and 21, I mean, it was it's probably one of the more painful stretches we've had in the last 25 years as a nation. But he said Texas was booming at that time, and so it's no surprise, as you kind of stressed here just a minute ago, Jack, that Texas just continues to go. No signs of slowing down, and there that there will be inevitably another time where you know the U.S. is in a recession or things are gonna slow down, and Texas probably isn't going to be affected by that the way the other 49 states are, and a lot of that's just because of their their policies, because their approaches, and they're just continuing to welcome people down into into Texas, the population growth as I referenced. So um so exciting time, and and again, I guess maybe just a final thought on on that comment that I'm kind of focusing on is it's kind of a model for others to follow. I mean, everyone kind of knows that Texas is led. You know, you you read off the Texas data center number numbers, Jack, and it's kind of astounding to me. I mean, that they represent 10% of the data center construction that's active, and I think you said 11% of plan, which is astounding again for one state. But again, looking at the numbers that you prepared, or ref the states that you referenced, I think Georgia was in there, Ohio you mentioned was just on the outside, Illinois was on there. I mean, those are the high, high producing aggregate production states, Crushstone, sand and gravel. Um not saying data centers are the difference, but but those are the states that have been continuously at the top of the production lists state by state in our country. And and Texas, I know, is number one in Crushed Stone. I think they're number two in San and Gravel. And and some of those those data centers, I mean, they're taking a lot of aggregates, and they're gonna be taking a lot more based on the numbers that you shared, not only in Texas, but but elsewhere and and the runway for for data center constructions. And we're looking outward four or five plus years. So exciting time for the industry, exciting time for that particular segment. And I know I'm kind of rambling at this point.

SPEAKER_02 27:04

No, no, you're good, but there's there's a lot to say.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

Yeah, but just thinking about it, I mean, you you referenced the South. I mean, they they obviously account for the majority of of the data centers. I thought it was interesting that the Midwest, you know, they're one of the bigger, bigger regions for that, but the South's dominating.

SPEAKER_02 27:19

Oh, yeah. Especially that, especially the Sunbelt is where you're seeing a lot of stuff going on, particularly in data centers, but just in general.

SPEAKER_03 27:25

For sure, for sure. Um, maybe one one final thought for me, just something that John said that kind of stuck with me is you know, we talk a lot about on the show in Pit and Corey's pages pretty regularly about the largest producers. I know in the last show we were talking about Martin Mariette and CRH, their big mergers and acquisitions. It's it's hard not to get roped into that, get excited about it, big activity, big producers. I mean, that's where so much of the growth of the aggregate industry is taking place is with the big guys, but but John made a point kind of toward the back end of your interview, Jack, saying how a lot of independents are staying busy, a lot of portable contracting activities taking place in their market, and how there seems to be a lot of work for everyone. And and uh I think this is a conversation I've had in the last several weeks related to the to the data centers, Jack, but probably a lot of the big producers are the ones that are really seizing the day on the data center aggregate demand makes sense because there's there's higher demands on that material than it is for your average Joe construction project out there. I mean, really tight specs, high demands. I mean, as we read in Alan Mayo's, I think it was our August edition, we published a data center uh story in our P and Q business section. I mean, they they are not gonna wait. They're not gonna they have high expectations for for their materials. I mean, if they say 7 a.m. on a Tuesday, they need X number of materials, you know, at the site, they're they're not gonna accept 8 o'clock. I mean, they're looking for vendors that are gonna deliver. Um, so I mean, the most sophisticated producers are seizing the day there at the end of the day. A lot of the cases that's the guys who are larger in size, but the fact that those data centers are coming to some markets, the Martin Marietas, the Vulcans, they're probably more focused on that than they have been in in years, and that's probably opening the door for maybe some of the independents or some of the other guys to seize the day on on some of the more regular work, infrastructure projects, pop-up projects, that sort of stuff. So just interesting dynamic. And again, I really appreciate you kind of bringing to the front here some numbers in terms of the data center operations that are out there planned, and and awesome perspective here from the Crisp guys to kind of color, you know, add some color commentary to to what's happening out there and even beyond the data centers. I thought that was a great interview we had with those two.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Yeah, no doubt. Thank you. It was it was great, it was great talking with them. I certainly appreciate their time. You know, I guess just one final thought I would have, and and you know, we we we touched on kind of the the the note John made about residential and thinking more about it as we've literally just been having this conversation right now and thinking about what's been going on in Texas. I'm drawn back to the conversation I had with Andrew and Matt, where I believe it was Matt Arnold that mentioned that Texas really has been, but especially is now, a place where companies want to invest. Uh, you know, you can go back to really probably the early to mid-2000s where you see companies in droves moving their headquarters to Texas. So you have you have companies moving their location either building locations or moving their locations to Texas. You have this massive data center boom that's creating a bunch of jobs for you know at at least the you know two, three, four, five years that it's gonna take to build some of these massive complexes. A lot a lot of people need places to stay. So it kind of it kind of is starting to add up a little bit where you have so much, you have so much activity going on, you have companies coming in, you have data centers that need to be built. And you know, I think again, that's one of the way, that's one of the things that, as you mentioned, even in the midst of less than stellar in the in the midst of a less than stellar environment, you know, in this case we're looking at the at the residential market, you know, you mentioned back in back in the recession during COVID, they they stayed strong and they kept they kept work going. That's why I think Texas is able to do it, is because just as a state, there's so much to offer there that it's always going to be driving business, it's gonna drive companies to move there, it's gonna drive further development, whether it's residential, infrastructural, non-residential. Um, so it's it it it does as as surprising as it kind of was at the at the jump when I heard it, sitting down and thinking a little bit more about it, it's like, well, yeah, residential's gonna keep booming. People need places to stay when they're working on these data centers, or when their company says, Hey, we're going from New York to Tennessee, or we're going from North Dakota to or not Tennessee, Texas, you know what I mean. Going from going from X State to Texas, going from here to Texas. So um it it definitely is just uh, you know, everything's bigger in Texas, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 31:55

So yeah, and if you build it, they will come. That's right, yeah. With with with data centers, I mean it requires roads. With with roads, it requires people to navigate on them, obviously. It means housing, it means schools, it means institutions, other facilities. So again, probably why, as Dwayne and John were alluding, I mean you get pop-up cities appearing in the middle of nowhere in in Texas. So exciting times. Really appreciate again John Crisp and Dwayne Winter sitting down with you, Jack.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Thank thank you guys both.

SPEAKER_03 32:23

Yeah. Well, what else is happening at Pit and Quarry these days? I'd encourage you if you hadn't listened to episode 70, as Jack kind of alluded here a minute ago. Again, Dr. Anuban Basu, Andrew Pinkerton, Matt Arnold, episode 70, Drilling Deeper, Drilling Deeper Podcast.com. Check that one out. And if you missed our last episode, we had Mark Krause on. Mark just retired just a week ago, I guess, as we're sitting down here, Jack. So uh we had a nice interview with him earlier this year at Con Expo. So it was kind of an opportunity for us to to really position his his episode or him being a guest on Drilling Deeper as kind of a you know a farewell, so to speak. And uh encourage you to listen to episode 71 featuring McClanahan Corporation's Mark Krause. We are also getting closer to the Pit and Quarry Roundtable and Conference at this time, Jack. I mean, I know we're sitting here July and uh we're dropping this one at the end of July or August. I'm already forgetting. But uh February's coming along, February 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. That's when our Pit and Quarry Roundtable and Conference will be returning. And we're actually gonna expanding the program a little bit. We're gonna have more details on that in um in the weeks and the months to come. But but you can learn a little bit more about the Pit and Quarry Roundtable on our dedicated website. Encourage you to check that out at Pit and Quarry Roundtable.com. Agripp producers are welcome to attend, and and uh if you have any questions, you know, feel free to reach out to Jack or myself, and we'd be more than happy to sit down with you and talk to you about the round table and how you can can partake in that down in in Florida next next uh February. We're also gearing up, which is kind of hard to believe, but the Pit and Cory Hall of Fame is going to be returning just beyond the 2027 round table, Jack. It's weird to be saying 2027. I mean I feel like 2026 is still just seems like an an oddball.

SPEAKER_02 34:08

We still got half the year left. We're talking about 27.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

I know, I know, but uh the Pit and Cory Hall of Fame for 27 actually already has a a date for the induction ceremony. That's gonna be March 14th, and we're gonna be down in New Orleans, which is super exciting. It's it's been a while since gosh, I've since I've been down there. Have you ever been been out in New Orleans?

SPEAKER_02 34:25

I've been I've been in Louisiana. I think I was in Baton Rouge, but I've never been to New Orleans.

SPEAKER_03 34:29

That's right. Yeah, you were you were down there last last summer, I think. Yep, visiting a couple of producers, but but uh the Ag One Show is gonna be down there in our Pitten Cory Hall of Fame induction ceremony, it's gonna be a part of that. So at this point, I guess the messaging we wanted to share with you guys out there listening is to to nominate because we're gonna be continuing to accept nominations for the 2027 Hall of Fame class for the next couple of months. But get your nominations in today. We've got a dedicated website for the Hall of Fame, just like we do the round table. But that one is Pit and Cory Hall of Fame.com, and we've got a nominate button on there. So producers, manufacturers, dealers, anybody who who really move the needle for the greater aggregates industry in the U.S. in North America, they're eligible for for nomination to the Pit and Cory Hall of Fame. So you know, we encourage you to get those in here because we're going to be butting those up and and assessing those, and our our selection committee will be reviewing those and and selecting the class year before the end of 2026. So uh get your nominations in for the Hall of Fame now.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

And um talking you talk about how it's crazy to be talking about 27. It seems like just yesterday we we had our last ceremony inducting Jerry Bauer, Ron D.Mar, Tom Hill, and Edgar B. Simons. I mean, I I I still remember that again, like it was like it was just a couple weeks ago, and now we're already talking about next year's hoping to induct another great batch of nominees.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Yeah, it it's wild at the end of the day, how time flies at Pitten Corey in the industry and just generally how we've gotten this far to 2026 is kind of beyond me, but um but in terms of other other uh takeaways for listeners out there, our August edition should be mailing if you have not already gotten that. If you're a print subscriber, you know, look for that. We've got a special section dedicated on get dedicated to Washington Classify. I mentioned that Alan Mayo piece, it's in our P and Q business section. So um if you enjoyed today's dinner data center conversation, check that out. It's again in the August edition, and we're already, as we're sitting down here, Jack, getting things organized for a pit and quarry September edition, which again is kind of hard to believe, but but look for some coverage on on things like excavators and loaders. We're gonna have some fracksan processing coverage. We've got a case study feature story and the works for that, drilling and blasting, dredging, tires, and a whole lot more. So look for that in in your mailbox for uh for our September edition. Same thing digital. Digitally, if you you receive the magazine that away. And just thinking ahead a little bit, Jack, we've got uh it's kind of hard to believe that some of the next events we're gonna be attending as a staff or the NSSGA Legislative and Policy Forum. That's one that takes place every year in Washington, kind of the lobbying event for the aggregate industry that's put on by the National Stone, Sand, and Gravel Association. So Pitt and Quarry will have some representatives to that. It's obviously a key year for for the event because the the uh IIJA, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act's coming to an end here, expiring September 30th. The legislative and policy forum takes place the week before. And as we're kind of sitting here at the end of July looking into August, Jack, I mean, it's not something I've thought about here for a minute, but but um we're gonna it's kind of getting to the point where we're looking at a continuing resolution on that and probably not a not a big bill. There's a lot of other things happening in Washington, a lot of big things happening globally that are that are kind of taking uh the forefront in Washington. So maybe doubtful on on a multi-year bill probably emerging before the IIJA expires in in uh September at the end of that month, but but uh none nonetheless, I mean, it's an important event for aggregates industry leaders, construction materials leaders to get out, lobby, get in front of your congressperson, and let them know the importance of the industry and how a multi-year, five-year bill, six-year bill ultimately benefits the not only the aggregates industry, but the country as a whole. So those are kind of the conversations that we have year to year as an industry when we're visiting the hill, storming the hill in Washington, D.C. So um Pitncore will be part of that. And and uh we also recently were invited, and I'm excited that we're gonna get to take part in in a Volvo construction equipment event. It's a special event they're gonna have in Shippensburg in September, right around the same time as the NSSGA Policy Forum. You know, they're gonna be touting their all-new Volvo VNX, which is their next generation truck for vocational applications and heavy hall. So, you know, we're looking forward to having someone out there for for that event, and and that's kind of where we are as a magazine here at Pitten Quarry, Jack. Um, we haven't thought too too much through what our next episode, I guess episode 73 will be, but we will be we we will be back for you in another couple weeks. That one's gonna drop on August 11th, and uh so stay tuned. But Jack, any parting thoughts for our listeners here on episode 72?

SPEAKER_02 39:06

No, just thank you again to uh to John and Duane from Crisp Industries for talking with me. I thought it was a very, very uh uh very insight-filled, very valuable interview. Uh, and I'll just also tease you, tease Pit and Corey September. I'll I'll do my part, tease Portable Plants September uh coming out soon. If you want more from John and Dwayne, from Andrew and Matt, and some insights from Dr. Aniban Basu as well. I sort of cobbled together a bunch of their thoughts to give sort of a written perspective on everything that's been going on in Texas. You can find that in the uh September issue of Portable Plants, along with a you know a full Q ⁇ A um from my sit-down with Dr. Basu and just plenty more going on um throughout the throughout the portable plans market. So uh be sure to check that out. The September edition print digitally, same thing as Pit and Quarry. And uh just yeah, other than that, great, great being here with you as always, Kevin.

SPEAKER_03 40:01

Yeah, and and if you don't receive portable plants print digitally, go to portable plants.com. You can access the September edition come September when Jack uh will make that available for for uh our audience on on that platform. So so good tease there, Jack. And uh again, great episode, great insights from from uh from John and Dwayne. And thanks for listening, everybody. See ya