Joe Joyaux feels lucky.
When Forge Truck Centers looked to strategically expand away from its Illinois home, Joyaux and Forge leadership looked to the state where it sold the most trucks — Texas.
“When it comes to finding a building for us, we’re trying to find something easy to get to and has a lot of transport coming in and out,” Joyaux says. “We’re looking for something to carry the space and give us enough bays to run our full-service department.”
In its search, the Forge team came across a shell of a building with eight acres of poured concrete outside of Dallas in Hutchins. It ticked the boxes the company was looking for: Close to the airport; close to highways; plenty of room for parking.
Even though it wasn’t built for trucks, it looked like it was supposed to be a truck location, he says.
“We were extremely lucky for this building,” Joyaux says. “We just stumbled upon a really good deal.”
Forge is looking to open a location every year. Next up is South Carolina.
If it can, Joyaux says, “This is the route we’re going to take every single time.”
Brownfielding and Greenfielding
What Forge did, John Walcher says, was brownfielding — taking an existing building and repurposing it for its own needs. The other option is greenfielding, which is starting with a clean slate, a green field.
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There are advantages to both approaches, says Walcher, president of Veritas Advisors, a merger and acquisitions and strategic advisory firm.
Brownfielding projects such as what Forge did tend to get off the ground faster than greenfields.
“Depending on the situation, I know companies able to get open within nine months, sometimes,” he says. Companies often don’t have to worry about permitting, he says, and can sometimes cost less, depending on the work to be done.
But there are drawbacks too. The zoning has to fit for its new use, and few properties are able to manage a direct conversion to heavy-duty uses simply due to the sheer size of the equipment. The company may not get to set the building to its workflows and will have to make changes based on the physical limitations of the location.
Greenfielding, on the other hand, gives a company time and space to create a property tailored specifically to its workflow. Yet customization also has drawbacks. Greenfield projects must be built to the present building code, which may be more stringent than past codes. They tend to be more expensive than brownfield projects as well.
“The execution risk tends to be highest when it comes to greenfielding, but they tend to offer the best returns,” Walcher says.
It’s also important the community supports the new branch as well.
Young Automotive Group is constantly expanding, says General Manager Randy Taylor. It has four truck and trailer locations in Utah, one in Logan, two in Kaysville and one in Pleasant View.
Taylor says Kaysville has been an “incredible” home for the company, with a community it’s loved being a part of.
“Staying in Kaysville was something we were incredibly excited about with this facility,” Taylor says. “(The city) helped make sure that our development ran smoothly.”
Making the Move
For Joyaux and Forge, when it was time to branch it out, it made sense to go where its sales were. Next to Illinois, Texas is where it sold the most trucks.
“We discovered that, with our location in Illinois, we were losing a good chunk of customer base because people don’t want to buy something without seeing it in person,” he says.
Having branches also would enable it to segment inventory. Texas customers, for instance, are typically more interested in equipment to support the oil and gas industry. He expects the South Carolina branch to stock more dump trucks.
Before even getting to looking at real estate, Forge examined its market and carefully, slowly made its way forward. Any expansion is stressful, Joyaux says, and the Forge team wanted to make sure they were well prepared before borrowing trouble.
“If you’re not prepared for the stress, it can chew you up and spit you out,” he says.
He says the team also made sure to properly manage their time.
“If you’re already spread thin, you’re going to be spread even thinner,” he warns.
Design Choices
Joyaux says Forge’s Illinois branch is an older building, so when it expanded to Texas the company wanted to showcase itself as a premium brand. He says now customers see the building and know Forge takes itself seriously. The employees like it too.
“It’s a place they can be proud of to come to work,” he says. “Everyone wants top-notch service on their truck. You can only give top-notch service if they have the right space.”
Young Truck & Trailer built from the ground up in Kaysville. The new location has 44,000 sq.-ft., more than 30 service bays and a showroom.
“The building is fantastic to look at from the highway and can be accessed easily from the street,” Taylor says. “Since moving, we’ve been able to eliminate service wait times and make our customer experience more convenient.”
Growing into a new space means the business is expanding too, Taylor says, and decisions should look at not just what works now but what will work two decades from now.
“You have to accommodate for things changing,” he says, “for teams expanding and for demands increasing.”