| Aggregate Recycling; Good for the Environment, Good for Business An Interview with Jeff Halloran, President of WYROC Materials July, 2012 Welcome to the first edition of IRON TIMES! In this month’s edition, we interview Jeff Halloran, President of WYROC Materials and find out how his company benefits the environment and how he is finding new opportunities in this down economy. What’s the story behind that name, WYROC? My father was a cement salesman. One of his clients was Wiley Brothers Transit Mix. One of the brothers passed away, and the other brother wanted to sell. So, my dad bought the company and went out of the cement business and into the ready-mix concrete business. He shortened the name to Wiley Transit Mix, and then found that he’d have more opportunities and a better market if he got out of the ready-mix business and focused just on supplying rock and gravel, and shortened the name to Wiley Rock, and eventually shortened that to WYROCK. He kept the goodwill from Wiley over all the years, plus it was kind of a tradition back then that a lot of the competitors and rock suppliers had some kind of abbreviated word and then “rock.” As the company changed, we differentiated because we took the K off it. So we’re now W-Y-R-O-C. WYROC is one of the few aggregate companies that works with recycled materials rather than virgin rock. How did you get into recycled rock? We transitioned into that over the years. I think we were one of the first in Southern California. The last time they did a measure, we were number three in the nation in recycling. To put a little bit of a scope to it, if you look at curbside recycling, we would recycle, back in the day, probably twice the amount that they would do to curbside recycling from North LA to the border of Mexico and on the west, to the Pacific and to the East, the border of California. As a result, we have significantly diverted material from the landfill into a building product. The past few years have been difficult for the construction industry. What have you learned during the down economy and how have you adapted? We’ve had to change on several levels. First, geographically, there are areas that we serviced that are just completely dead. So, we have closed those operations. We no longer supply to them because they don’t have a need. What we’re also doing is expanding our offering. Our offering before, and continues to be, a bulk product sold in the big 18-wheel trucks you see on the road. We’re also looking at different ways to package it in polybags or what they call super sacks, which are one-ton sacks they can put in the back of a pickup truck. What that does is it gives the consumer access to a recycled green product that they never had before. So that is a new niche. Your company maintains eight core values. Can you sum up the values of WYROC? The overlying thing is, we want to be known as passionately innovative. I think that’s been our tradition. Being the first one to recycle and now moving into a new consumer market. Everything with our values not only supports that, but also insists on a civility between each other and our customers. That is a core thing – be responsive and react appropriately, and solve their problems. Any Signs of Improvement in the Economy? My expectations are for not much of an improvement in the bulk market. That’s probably going to remain slow for some time. We’re seeing some matching by the government with different measures and programs. Those probably will not trickle down – at least in any immediate way – to the consumer and the homebuilder. That will put public employees to work, but it isn’t going to affect the private industry probably that much. Do you have any advice for someone who is running their own business during in this down economy? The thing that I’ve taken out of going through this change in this economy is I define myself pretty narrowly as kind of a quirky industry. You know – Fred Flintstone. Every time you talk about it, people just shake their head. You start getting a mindset that maybe you’re not special, but you’re unique, and your problems are unique. What I’ve discovered through networking and discussions is there are core problems that exist across all industries. They’re just flavored a little bit different. There are solutions that you can reach to. You just have to tweak it a little bit to make it on point for yourself. So, don’t think you’re so special that you can’t pick up a good business book and get principles out of it that you can apply. If you could meet someone who’s living or dead; who would it be? Joshua Chamberlain. He was a Colonel at Gettysburg. He was in charge of holding one of the flanks. He was from Maine. He was basically given the charge, “You hold this line. If you don’t, we will lose.” He had 200 men to start with. He was down to 80 and no ammunition. The Confederates were re-mounting for a charge, and he told his men, “Fix bayonets – charge!” with no ammo. They couldn’t believe the order, but they did it. When the Confederates saw that, they surrendered, and he saved the day. For more information on Jeff Halloran and WYROC Materials, please visit www.WYROC.com |
| BABE OF THE MONTH “Erin”
2002 Caterpillar D8T Contact: Travis Mottet |
| BOOZE REVIEW A New Friend; Irish Whiskey
After a week in Switzerland, Erin and I flew from Zurich to Dublin and landed sometime around midnight. We decided to rent a car at the airport so we could get up early and drive west to Limerick for a few days. Looking back, that was a horrible idea since 1) we didn’t know where we were going and the GPS was absolutely worthless, 2) it was pitch black out with very few street lights and 3) neither of us have ever driven a car with right hand steering. Thankfully, I knew how to drive a manual transmission or else we would have never left the airport. After getting completely lost and damn near driving down the wrong way on the toll road, I reluctantly stopped at a local convenience store to ask for directions. If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it either, but there behind the counter was an Indian name Ramesh. I almost burst out laughing at the irony but I held back since I was desperate and he was the only one could help me. I thanked him for the directions and headed out the door to bravely venture back out onto the roads. After a few more close calls we finally made it to our hotel in one piece. I was a nervous wreck and Erin and I weren’t on speaking terms. I dropped our bags in our room and promptly headed to the bar for a nightcap. There were only three or four people left in the bar at that hour but I only cared about one man; the bartender. He greeted me with a smile and in a thick accent asked what I wanted to drink. I peered over to the group of men to my right and it appeared each had a pint of Guinness and a shot of something brown. I told the bartender to give me whatever they were drinking and to make the shot a double. He was back in a few minutes with a pint and glass of booze. I took a big swig of the Guinness and chased it with a sip of my soon to be best friend. Ah!!! Irish Whiskey, welcome to the family! Normally a scotch drinker, this was a total departure from my norm. Though it tasted a little like scotch, it had a much sweeter aftertaste and more of a syrup-like consistency. And, mixed with a Guinness, it was absolute perfection. The remainder of our honeymoon revolved around sightseeing, which was breathtaking, and wide variety of local pubs. The people of Ireland are absolutely wonderful and genuinely go out of their way to make sure you enjoy yourself. We both brought back hundreds of photos and memories for life, but I also brought back a new obsession; Irish Whiskey. ~ TJM |
| EDITOR’S CORNER Communication & Follow-up
I spend the majority of my day communicating with buyers, sellers, brokers, dealers, truckers and banks. Sometimes it’s over the phone but more often than not, it’s through email and, increasingly, via text message. One would assume that with three separate means of contact it would equate to better communication and, more importantly, better follow-up. However, I’m starting to think it’s quite the opposite. Do you remember when you had to rely on just your phone? And, I don’t mean your cell phone. I mean the phone that was plugged into the wall with the cord that was always 6 inches shorter than what you needed to reach the pencil across the room. When that phone rang, you picked it up; because if you didn’t you would have no idea who called or why. Was it your mom or a customer with an order? Technology was meant to improve our lives, but has it really? The advent of the answering machine, and later voice mail, may have cured our “missed call anxiety syndrome” but it has also started to reduce our sense of urgency when the phone rang. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard “I’ll just let it go to voice mail” during meetings. Email made it possible to instantly send messages to the other side of the world, but thanks to spam and overuse, most inboxes are stuffed with hundreds of messages each day. I’m even finding that text messages are being ignored more and more. While I understand that it’s hard to keep up with the flood of messages and voice mails; we can’t lose sight of what make any organization successful; communication and follow-up. Simply put; if I call you, call me back; if I email you, email me back; and if I text you, text me back. You’ll be surprised how far it will take you in your business and in life. ~ TJM |
| LIKE WHAT YOU SEE? Subscribe now, and be the first to receive each new edition!!! |
Ever since my wife, Erin, and I visited Ireland during our honeymoon in the summer of 2011, I’ve become somewhat addicted to Irish whiskey. Like most addictions, my journey started with a humble beginning. 
There are very few things in life that bother me, but poor communication and lack of follow-up are certainly high on my list.