It’s Time For The Aggregates Industry To Unlock The Power Of CPQ And Shape A Future Of Efficiency, Profitability And Customer-Centricity. By Barry Hudson, Laura Georgi and Oksana Verbetska In the dynamic world of the aggregates industry, staying ahead of the competition is crucial. To thrive in this challenging landscape, companies must adapt to changing customer demands, streamline their operations,…
Read MoreAuthor: Barry Hudson
Pricing Strategies (Part Two)
Does Your 2024 Budget Set You Up For Failure? By Barry Hudson and Steve Franklin In the first of this two-part series, which appeared last month, the authors stated the challenge and offered initial advice. In part two, they identify solutions. – Ed. When thinking about the aggregates industry, and how fixated some people are with volume, as opposed to…
Read MorePricing Strategies (Part One)
Does Your 2024 Budget Set You Up For Failure? By Barry Hudson and Steve Franklin In the first of this two-part series, the authors state the challenge and offer initial advice. In part two, they identify solutions. – Ed. For such an operationally focused industry, quarry operators are very poor at planning, specifically sales and operational planning (S&OP). It’s hardly…
Read MoreBig Rock Math
EveryPoint Discusses The Business Cases Around Effective Inventory Management And Optimized Pricing In Aggregates. By Barry Hudson and Lisa Tener Each day hundreds of aggregate teams collaborate to ensure the successful production, distribution, sale and delivery of bulk products to customers in the United States and abroad. Inaccurate perpetual inventory data leads to poor decisions and labor-intensive corrective measures which…
Read MorePricing: Sales Success Stories
How Top Plant People Use Quoting And Sales Planning To Their Advantage. By Barry Hudson In the high-stakes world of aggregate plants and rock quarries, every grain of sand, every pebble, counts. Especially when margins are as small as they are in this industry. But it’s not just about what’s underfoot; it’s about foresight, planning, and a dash of savvy…
Read MorePricing: Embrace the New Technology
The Stone Age Didn’t End Because We Ran Out of Stone. By Barry Hudson In this article, Barry Hudson, co-founder of Price Bee, discusses the pitfalls of relying on spreadsheets, like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets – or even Lotus 123 (can you remember this?) to run a business in our industry, with input from Thomas Bergmans, senior vice president, Logistics…
Read MoreAggregates Pricing Over The Past 30 Years
History Will Not Repeat Itself For The Aggregates Industry. By Barry Hudson and Laura Georgi Over the past 30 years, the price evolution of construction aggregates in the United States has experienced various trends and fluctuations. Construction aggregates, including sand, gravel, crushed stone and other materials, are essential components in the construction industry, used for various applications such as road…
Read MorePricing Do’s and Don’ts
How Much Time, Effort And Structured Thought Are You Placing On Pricing For A Healthy P&L Statement And, Eventually, A Healthy Balance Sheet? By Barry Hudson and Julia Georgi Operating a business in a way that creates shareholder value while staying focused on customers is a management challenge. On the one hand, the shareholders want the value of their investment…
Read MoreThe Aggregates Producer Price Index
Aggregates Prices Rise In The United States By 1.5% In The First Quarter Of 2023. By Barry Hudson This is the fifth in a series of articles on pricing. -Ed. The 1.5% rise in the average price of aggregates in the first quarter of 2023 comes after a higher price rise (4.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022). The price…
Read MorePeckham Industries Tackles Pricing
A New Plan Allowed The Company To Focus On Delivering Value To Its Customers – And Its Customers To Focus On Their Work. By Barry Hudson and Julia Georgi This is the third in a series of articles on pricing. -Ed. The year 2022 was an unprecedented year for inflation, and the speed of its onset. Headline inflation numbers were…
Read More