This week on the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett chats with Dustin Wilcox and Mike Tribley. Dustin is the manager of the Beebe location for Oakley while Mike manages the Foristell operation. During the episode, the group discusses Oakley’s bagging facilities in Beebe and Foristell while also looking into the history and operations of these facilities. These operations handle products like livestock feed, fertilizers, and ice melt. The conversation also highlights the evolution of these facilities, including the introduction of automation to improve efficiency. The group also discusses the importance of transportation logistics, the benefits of Oakley’s acquisition of TNN and expansion, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Looking ahead at today’s episode (0:54)
- Introduction to bagging facilities (1:20)
- Sponsorship appreciation: LubeZone and Arrow Truck Sales (2:15)
- Introducing of Dustin and Mike (3:52)
- History and operations of Beebe facility (7:33)
- Acquisition and operations of Foristell facility (12:59)
- Product formulation and market reach (16:19)
- Transportation logistics and collaboration (20:04)
- History of Bagging Facilities (21:43)
- Automation and Robotics in Bagging (25:08)
- Impact of Oakley’s Acquisition (27:58)
- Market Monitoring and Resource Utilization (30:05)
- Future Opportunities and Expansion (31:33)
- Oakley’s Diverse Business Operations (34:39)
- Final thoughts and takeaways (36:20)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Dustin Wilcox 00:12
When you talk about the scope of Oakley, and you look at, you know, we’ve got guys in the office that are buying internationally. And then Oakley barging. Jan Tran, you know, picks it up at the Gulf goes up to St. Louis, to that facility, offloads. They’re put on an Oakley truck, brought to Forestdale, put in a bag and then ends up in New Mexico. As you know, Oakley has handled that product from the origin of the product all the way to the finish good. It’s pretty amazing to sit back and think about how diverse we are as a company and all the things that we do.
Jeremy Kellett 00:54
Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business, and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley Trucking, headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner-operators and their families by giving them up-to-date information concerning Oakley Trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories. Also to give an inside to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, this Jeremy kellett director of recruiting here at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family appreciate everybody tuning in every week to listen to the new episodes we got coming out and this one is going to be a good one because I bet most of the listeners out there didn’t know Bruce Oakley had bagging facilities where we bag product and we’re gonna sit down with Dustin Wilcox and Mark dribbly. And we’re going to talk about their facilities and BB Arkansas and Forster, Missouri, and just exactly what all products they put out where their location is, how big it is. I got to talk to them yesterday a little bit about this kind of prepping for this episode. And it’s just I didn’t even know all this stuff. So it’s really good information. I think everybody’s gonna learn something from this. So we’ll get started with that here in just a minute. But first, sponsors and as always, LubeZone has been a great sponsor for the Oakley podcast from the beginning and of course Arrow Truck Sales. You know LubeZone We actually had an amount of a new Annabelle sent me that stuff that was on Facebook the other day talking about lube zone and it was just people chiming in, you know of how quick they are, how efficient they are, how, you know, a lot of our owner operators use lube zone for their services, oil changes, and it was something that I guess you know, I don’t hear a whole lot about but but when we did, we sent it to the lube zone representatives. I thought it was great. So I mean, they got a good reputation. I recommend you try them if you find one of their locations. I know they got one down in Houston or in that area, I forget where all their locations are at but definitely check out Luke zone and of course Arrow Truck Sales have been with us from the beginning. Those guys are great up there in Springfield, Missouri. Do a heck of a job on first time owner operators, especially first time owner operators getting their first truck and helping them take care of them after the sale. So, you know, be sure and check out LubeZone and Arrow Truck Sales, our sponsors are very much appreciated. And as always, you know, follow the podcast, watch it on YouTube, listen to it. However you guys want to do it. I appreciate you sharing it, telling other people about it. You know Annabelle does a great job putting out our stuff on TikTok. And I mean all kinds of short videos. I mean, it’s just, you know, done great. We have a great following now. We’re up to over 34,000, almost 35,000 followers on YouTube are subscribers, I should say a lot on Facebook and all our social media. So it’s been great and going great. So appreciate everybody, what y’all do and sharing information. Okay, let’s talk to Mr. Dustin Wilcox and Mike Trembley about how you guys do. Doing great
Dustin Wilcox 03:51
doing good,
Jeremy Kellett 03:52
glad you gained appreciation for it. I know we kind of gathered all the managers here this week and got together and had a meeting and got to talk about some stuff and it really opened my eyes on Wow, what all Bruce Oakley entails. You know everything you didn’t compass and the stuff that you guys are dedicated to doing is something I bet a lot of our listeners don’t know anything about. And that’s the bag and plants that you operate BB and Forestdale. So, before we get into that, I want to talk all about that. But first, Dustin, introduce yourself to everybody and let us know who you are. I’m
Dustin Wilcox 04:26
Dustin Wilcox. I’m from Greenbrier Arkansas, born and raised started
Jeremy Kellett 04:31
with that tell me that before it started I should have known that it started
Dustin Wilcox 04:35
with Oakley about six years ago. Married get two kids 15 and 12. And work daily out of the baby office. Come down to North Little Rock at least one or two days a week also and then oversee the BB office and the for sale location so what you do on the weekend. I Was born and raised on a farm so I run cattle, sheep, pigs, do Farmers Market custom beef, pork, all that stuff that really entered in, you know, run kids to ball and, you know, all the fun things that come along with it.
Jeremy Kellett 05:15
But you might.
Mike Tribley 05:15
So I might Tripoli grew up 10 miles south of forestall Missouri, was born, you know, wasn’t born there. I was born in St. Louis, young at a young age and everything else moved out to forestall area about age, second grade, and I grew up out there in a very nice, fun area and so forth. Work for sale used to be called tnn. Oakley bought us in 2021. I’ve been there since 1993. Just grown throughout the operation started as a truck driver at one time, and he worked into production, worked into safety, worked as a plant manager. And now I am the General Manager of the forest sale plant. Nice family, family. I have a wife of 28 years, two kids 23 Morgan and 21 grants. Morgan stole college grants out of college. He’s got his own gig going on right now. So almost empty nester, yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 06:14
last, yeah. What do y’all do for hobbies? Hobbies, we
Mike Tribley 06:17
I like camping, fishing. Kayaking them is very much like a waterway. We love going out and camping and floating, got some good rivers and we got some great rivers up in the Ozarks. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 06:29
How far? Is it north of St. Louis?
Mike Tribley 06:32
So that’s south of St. Louis. Alphas. Yeah, about an hour south of St. Louis. Yeah. So you have like the Current River? Oh, yeah. Who’s our river? The Black River? You know,
Jeremy Kellett 06:41
That’s probably where the current starts. Yes.
Mike Tribley 06:44
Right. Up there. Close. Yes. Yes. It’s, there’s a couple of natural springs in the Current River that feed it very cold water. I’d say 62 degrees all year round. Yeah. Yeah. Trout fishing in those rivers.
Jeremy Kellett 06:57
I’m familiar with the Current River and farther south and Northeast Arkansas. Yeah, where I’m from. So we read on the Current River and grew up on the Current River. So it’s a little different from where you’re up north.
Mike Tribley 07:08
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Very beautiful. Waters clear. Crystal clear.
Jeremy Kellett 07:11
Yeah. Let’s talk about the Beebe location first. Because, you know, Dustin, that one’s kind of, I mean, that’s where things started, you know, back in 68. And now, I was talking to Beanie and Dennis about this a little bit, and they gave me a little history on, you know, where they all started back at the Beebe office. So, you know, back then, well remember was it a bagging plant back then,
Dustin Wilcox 07:33
originally it started as a fertilizer and they took in grain. So it was started to take care of local farmers. There was a need in the area for fertilizer and started out with that. And then, you know, once they started harvesting their crops, they had rail there so they could load out rail cars and local farmers bring their grain, soybeans, Milo wheat, those products there. Okay. And from what I understand, yeah, but then he got his start there and Dennis worked there and Justin’s Workfare. So there is a lot of history there. Yes. So what do you do there I mean, what all takes place it to be location so we’re primarily a feed and fertilizer facility. We bag all different kinds of livestock feed from cattle feed poultry feed to you know anything livestock wise wet bag there we do a 50 pound bags and we also do like super sacks and then we’ve also got feed delivery in bulk so we actually deliver bulk feed out to customers farms, we have bulk fertilizer so we spread fertilizer for customers, fertilizer buggies, anything that you could need. We also got a small retail store there so we do service the public as far as you know just local people coming in to buy you know poultry feed or dog food or things like that. So you have a lot of those things for sale there at the BB Fussa Yes, and as far as the bag fertilizer there. We do all the standard blends you know triple 13 Triple 19 We do some custom bagging for some people Yeah, so we stay busy year round. That’s because feet slow down fertilizer kicks in and so it’s a good balance to keep us busy year round.
Jeremy Kellett 09:19
Yeah, yeah, sounds like it so it’s it’s it is your business growing much other you kind of steady in what you have. Michaels BB, you know, for people that don’t know B because it’s not a very big town.
Dustin Wilcox 09:31
Yeah. So I guess I should explain that the bulk of our business is wholesaling. So we wholesale to around 60 different farm stores around the state of Arkansas, do a little bit into Missouri, southern Missouri. So that’s a huge part of our business. Is that and then the retail business so we’ve continued to grow year after year since I’ve been there. And I don’t know. Thanks for changing a little bit with the cattle market. And with prices being so high and people selling off cattle and things like that so it’s gonna be interesting to see how 2425 shakes out on the cattle side but yeah, we got a lot of positive things going so feel good about it
Jeremy Kellett 10:11
right of course we bagged corn lots of that for the deer hunters yeah so yet in all different locations all around Arkansas when I go looking to buy some I actually try to get the people over there baloney to buy from you. Yeah. You know, and it’s, it’s, I can see where I know that it’s a big part of the business but a lot of you actually sell the palletized stuff to the wholesaler. Yeah. So and in retail it to the ghost. Absolutely. So
Dustin Wilcox 10:41
a big part of our business is built on the mom and pop feed stores, you know, from state line to state line, do a lot of business with Co Op organizations, and things like that. So, during typical feed season, we’ll ship out three to five semi loads a day, a bag product, there’s got to be so so you got trucks. We’ve got one company truck of our own van trailer, but then we use outside freight. You know, to do the other loads. We have a lot of Oakley trucks that come through there that haul DDG themed products. Ammonia, nitrate, you know, other fertilizer products and then Rick mod is our local guide. Yeah, that has been with Oakley forever. And he does our daily hauls of, you know, back and forth from North Little Rock to Baby How many loads I mean, unless he does it every day. Yeah, so typically recalls moving quite a bit of two to three loads a day to force parlez fertilizer and then he also haul salt from morrilton. We bring in bulk salt to the morrilton location by barge. And then we back a lot of feed salt for feed mills and pet food mills. Dumb and pet would do a lot of bagging pet food. Yeah, dog food.
Jeremy Kellett 12:03
Okay, so explain that.
Dustin Wilcox 12:05
So there’s salt in pet food. Okay, so anyways, those companies buy a considerable amount of salt too. So who knew? Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 12:16
I mean, pet food is rampant. Yeah. I mean, you get into that market. You get into something there? Yeah.
Dustin Wilcox 12:23
So we’re very diverse there. Got a good crew, we run about 17 people, on average. Bear so it’s not a huge location, but decent size. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 12:34
you get a good good group there, it seems like it’s always been there. That’s the, you know, that’s the cornerstone of Oakley the upper BB? Yeah, everybody got to know about BB? Yeah. What about up at Forestdale? I mean, let’s, I guess first let’s talk about how it came about. You know, if you guys both are my talk about lists, lists, talked about how Oakley acquired the facility and forced to and then we’ll talk about what all does, yeah,
Mike Tribley 13:00
So in 1988, a group of farmers in the Forestdale Wentzville region came together and built the company at the time as tnn Incorporated. Basically an ag retailer, they were doing bulk fertilizers feeds. We buy grain from the farmer and so forth and market for him and everything else. When 2021 Oakley purchased the facility from tnn, most of the owners of tnn. At that time, they were probably in their 70s 75 age range. So they all wanted to retire at that time. So they sold the business Oakley came in thinking it was a good fit. purchased us. What would you think when I was at, you know, at first, you know, I you know, being there for 28 years. I’m like, wow, you know, okay, is my safe, you know? Yeah, you know? And so far, so yeah, a little nervous at the time. Then the Oakley family came in, talked to us and said, Hey, we’re not changing anything. You guys keep operating the same way you are. So that was a sigh of relief and gave us a lot of comfort and gave a lot of employees comfort. I got what we had at that time. We had a lot of employees. We still do that, having been there, you know, 3031 25 years with the company. So quite a few people were nervous.
Jeremy Kellett 14:23
But they were Yeah. Trying to figure out what’s going on here. Yeah. Do we have a job or not? Oakley kept them all. So
Mike Tribley 14:31
l Qlik. kept everybody on, and so forth. We had one guy, he was already talking about retirement. So he retired about a year and a half ago. He had been there for like 35 years. He retired and so forth. And from that point on the rest of the crew basically out back other than the ownership is still there.
Jeremy Kellett 14:53
Oh, nice. So, so you start, you know, putting Oakley logos on everything and changing this stuff up a little bit, but it sounds like he embraced it. And everybody up there did
Mike Tribley 15:05
Correct, correct , Yeah. So yeah, we put the Oakley logo on the buildings and everything else and on the signs and everything else changed from the old tnn and so forth. And yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 15:15
tell us about the facility. So, for
Mike Tribley 15:19
Estelle, we are a formulator. They’re a formulator which means we are able to do crabgrass preventers weeding feeds. And if we’re also licensed we can do some insecticides, the more we can apply it on to the fertilizers for the turf market for the retail stores. So I have 100,000 square feet of dry goods storage, warehousing, we have bulk facilities there too, we can store roughly over 20,000 tons of bulk. So we buy basically everything by barge, truck it in, store it and so forth. And then we have great supplies for all of our customers at all times. We do smell as well. So it’s for lawn and garden fertilizer, and ice melts de icing products that we supply to the industry. A lot of our products are ran from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, all the way to the east coast, is where we’re shipping most of our products out of the Forestal location
Jeremy Kellett 16:18
really so. So you’re shipping them to hope you’re wholesaling it. All of
Mike Tribley 16:23
ours is wholesale. Yeah, every bit of ours is wholesale. We have a lot of farms at home stores, like rural kings, farming homes, MFAs that we are supplying, that we’re bagging our Oakleys product in the bag, our trademarks. And we have a sales crew that has accounts and everything else. And then we’re shipping direct to the stores that
Jeremy Kellett 16:46
I was looking at the website. So anybody listening to this, you can actually go to the Bruce Oakley website, look on there and find Oakley professional products, which is what the official name is, and click on it and you’d be amazed all the I was looking at it this morning getting ready. And I was like, man, look at all the products that you’re putting out with the different bags, you know, in the feed the fertilizer and weed and all that stuff. I was like, man, what is it that I didn’t realize we did all that you had all those kinds of products, they would just come about. I mean,
Mike Tribley 17:18
You know, you know, getting the other well, you know, getting into being a formulator to have weed and feed and crabgrass preventers and everything else that took a while, you know, that takes a lot of hard work and everything else. registrations were registered with the EPA, we have an establishment number, we have to get approval. Basically, if we’re wanting to add a new chemical to our lineup and everything else, we go to the chemical manufacturer, say, Hey, we’re interested in adding this product to our you know, then they’ll show up at our facility, we’ll have meetings, we’ll have audits. And you know, and then either we pass or fail and 99 We always pass. And we’ve done great with that just
Jeremy Kellett 18:00
gives you even just more of the market. Yes, yes,
Mike Tribley 18:03
it brings in a big package. So now we have a package deal. So where we can give you a re-emergent, a way to feed and just a basic fertilizer as well, you know, if you’re looking for something,
Jeremy Kellett 18:15
and that kind of encompasses the whole thing, the whole thing, huh? So who do you think are your the end customers, mostly
Mike Tribley 18:23
The end customers on our end are going to be your families. You know, they have resident gardens, residents that are applying to their lawns, and everything else. We’re 48 miles west of St. Louis. So we’re in a big market where a lot of turf guys are using our products as well, applying it to commercial ball fields, golf courses as well. And so forth. So it
Jeremy Kellett 18:51
must be a good product. Absolutely. It
Mike Tribley 18:53
is a good product.
Jeremy Kellett 18:54
Yeah, the sales just keep increasing every year. Yes. And you stay busy, I guess sounds like up there year round.
Mike Tribley 19:00
Yes. Yeah. So like right now in production in the summer months, we are doing ice melt. We’re still doing fertilizer and on a few of our other bagging lines. We switched over to bagging ice melts, getting ready for winter. We try to be a season ahead of everything.
Jeremy Kellett 19:15
Do you do that in bulk to
Mike Tribley 19:18
do very little in bulk? We let the Oakley St. Louis location handle the bulk there? Yeah, we’re mainly all bagged at our facility. Okay.
Jeremy Kellett 19:28
All right. Yeah, interesting. Trucks. You
Mike Tribley 19:32
got trucks that deliver this Yeah, we have two of our own trucks that run their day cabs. They will have Hopper bottoms and flatbeds so they actually haul ingredients into us and then haul the finished goods out of our location as well. So we’re very diverse. We keep the trucks pretty lights where we can haul 2021 pallets at a time that the 50 we can haul 54,000 net legally to our customers and that helps us offset. Oh yeah, yeah, so landed a good cost to the customer.
Jeremy Kellett 20:04
Yeah, that makes a difference when you can get the weight on. Yep. outdo the competition. And we talked a little bit of Dustin but you’re using Oakley trucks that you use them to mark yes we
Mike Tribley 20:13
do. Yeah, yeah, I have some ingredients that are coming out of like Mississippi out of Ohio that we use Oakley trucks for
Jeremy Kellett 20:22
we’re trying to y’all probably know this too, but we’re trying to establish more a part of that St. Louis area with some owner operators up there some local stuff, you know, that we’re trying to get into? We’ve done a little bit in the past. But you know, right now we’ve got one guy. We got one owner operator out there. Got to start with one and he’s got a day cab. And it’s working out really good so far. But we know there’s a need for it. And there’s definitely the freight up there to do it. And, you know, of course, anything we can get from you guys is sure. helpful when it comes to that. Yeah,
Mike Tribley 20:56
where you know, St. Louis is very, very well blessed with having interstate 44. Interstate 55, Interstate 70 running right there. So we can go north, south, east or west from our location. Pretty quick.
Jeremy Kellett 21:11
That Mississippi River just, I mean, you get around it. There’s stuff to be done. And yes,
Dustin Wilcox 21:16
It’s unbelievable how much barge traffic and products come in and down the river. I
Jeremy Kellett 21:21
mean, it really is. It’s something that I hope to do an episode with Fred and talk about the waterways a little bit. People have more knowledge of that. And it’s kind of one of those hidden things in the background that a lot of product travels on the water that a lot of people don’t realize,
Mike Tribley 21:39
yeah, the port of St. Louis is pretty impressive. Yeah, yes.
Jeremy Kellett 21:43
The idea is, hey, other thing you’re talking about that bag and I remember you telling that story yesterday, but you had the original. You melt the milkman back. That’s what it was? Yeah.
Mike Tribley 21:52
So, you know, yesterday I met with Rich Stegman from lying Stockman back in 2000. What a great net. Was it? 2017? Or Wait, when did they win in 2019? Oakley purchase length? stegmann. Okay, yeah. 2019. So, yeah, there’s a little history there between DAG men and the old regime of tnn. Okay. Lang stegmann was bag and fertilizer in the day. And so were we. And we were kind of competing against each other. I think in 9019 96, we purchased their ice melt rights away. So their lineup of ice melts. And that’s where we got the melt man bag. And we brought the milkman logo and label into our facility, and we were selling it as well. And then in 1998, we purchased the bag fertilizer division away from laying Stegman. And we got them away from bagging so that way, we’re the sole bagging company in the St. Louis area, and so forth. And then
Jeremy Kellett 22:53
did they just give I mean, the give up the logo or say, well,
Mike Tribley 22:58
We bought what we wanted and we wanted that love. Trademark and yeah, brought that into tnn. And then in 2021. Here we are back with SOAP full circle. We’re Oakleys. And when Rich was in there yesterday, I kind of wanted to bring that up to them because they were pretty proud of that bag. And we’re just proud of that bag.
Dustin Wilcox 23:20
It’s a good looking bag.
Mike Tribley 23:21
And I, you know, showed him the logo yesterday. And then I told her we’re gonna bring in a 12 pound shaker jug. So we do shaker jugs
Jeremy Kellett 23:29
as well. Yes, I want y’all to talk about those shakers and judge what the heck it is.
Mike Tribley 23:33
Yeah. So it’s a little 12 pound shaker jug that you see on stores on the endcaps of stores. And it’s melting ice. We have a pet friendly one. It’s called Paul Powell. Very good product and everything else. And then we’re bringing on the milkman, the
Jeremy Kellett 23:48
jugs, just easier to pour it out, pour out little shake
Mike Tribley 23:51
a jug has a cap lead, flip the cap up, shake it out, put it on your little steps or sidewalk, close the cap store it back nice and dry,
Jeremy Kellett 23:59
but it was so pet friendly. It was the other stuff not pet friendly. We
Mike Tribley 24:03
I only have one pet friendly product. And that’s Paul Powell. So milkman is just another type of ice melt that we’re putting into, you know, we’re gonna shoot out there into our channels. I like it.
Dustin Wilcox 24:16
It’s just that jug. You know, if you’ve got just an apartment or elderly people, it’s just a lot more user friendly. You know, they don’t want to tote around a 50 pound bag you know and travel the world and this and that. So it just comes full circle with the product. Is
Jeremy Kellett 24:31
Is this a little niche in the competition? Or is everybody pretty much got the
Mike Tribley 24:35
everybody you know, most of all of our good big competitors all have a shaker jog out there in a pet friendly and so forth. So yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 24:43
I want you to tell me about the mean you had a conversation yesterday, Mike about the robot. Yes, you know, and we can decide if we’re going to keep it on here. Afterwards, you were talking about how, like everybody, it’s hard to get good help in a lot of places and doing certain jobs that are monotonous. You know, and hard every day and you had that situation up there. With what? Yeah, so,
Mike Tribley 25:08
You know, we used to bag everything by hand. And we used to throw down per line bag in line, we had to bag in lines and the day, we would throw down 100 tons per line. So 4000 bags per line, that we would hand stack and handbag and so forth. Every day in and day out. 2001, we heard we built a 30,000 square foot facility, added our first automated line to that point that was semi automated, it took a guy 2009 We added a robotic line. So once we added that robotic line that gave us a lot of diversity, it took a guy away from that to where he didn’t have to sit there in touch bags all day, made it more employee friendly, and so forth. Well, we’d always give a tour people would come in, say, how many jobs would that robot take away? And I always would tell them none. Because every day I’d hire somebody to come in and hand stack this stuff. They wouldn’t come back at lunch. So I went at the end of the day, no one wanted that job. Technically, I look at it as like, well, you’re not taking jobs away, because no one wanted that job.
Jeremy Kellett 26:15
Yeah. Yeah, there’s a purpose for that. There’s a purpose for it. And this robot does. You’re telling it to the shaker jugs. Does the robot do the shaker? The robot does not shake. What was it? What was it we talked about yesterday that he? I mean, he filled it. Put the cap on? Yeah,
Mike Tribley 26:32
So we used to do that by hand, we made a little mechanism on one of our hand baggers, and where we would fill it on the handbag, or it would drop it, which would send it over and a guy would just screw the cap on and then put it in a box. So we actually went out and purchased a bag, jug filling line to where it actually you set the JUGS on the conveyor. It indexes a jug in, fills the jug, since it throws a capper, puts the cap on, and then you got a guy taking it off setting it in the box. So much more efficient, much more efficient. We doubled our capacity. Just by doing that. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 27:10
How have you been that guy that had felt that checkered jug? Yeah,
Dustin Wilcox 27:13
There’s not God standing in line wanting the job to screw lids on jugs all day either. So yeah,
Mike Tribley 27:19
when you went in and said, Hey, today, we’re, we’re going to do jugs, Eric, you can see in everybody’s eyes like okay.
Jeremy Kellett 27:27
Like, is that mechanism? It? Don’t? They don’t look at you funny. No.
Dustin Wilcox 27:31
It doesn’t complain that it shows up every day. Yeah, turn
Jeremy Kellett 27:35
It goes on and on. Yes, that’s good. That’s really good. You know, we talked about Oakley personally in the beginning, but how has that made a difference in the facility up there at Forestdale? And then also bringing destiny in? You know, when working in the office? How does that work? And how has that changed things?
Dustin Wilcox 27:57
Well, as far as one of the main things with purchasing tnn was, you know, there were we’d been bagging at BB for a while fertilizer, but we had never done any real specialty type things. We just did basic blends and things like that. And Justin was, you know, looking for opportunities to, you know, grow and advance our bagging business. And tnn had a great thing go on up there, they had kind of mastered that with their crew and the products and their whole process. And so we’ve implemented some things that they did that, you know, we by acquiring that business in Forestdale, that has helped out with, you know, us being able to learn new things, do new things, learning tricks of the trade, you know, hey, well, we’ve always done it this way, maybe that’s the only way we’re gonna do it. You know, Mike’s how well we could do it this way, you know, this is more efficient. And so that’s been great to be able to, to utilize, you know, their learning and their expertise out of Forestdale Plus, I’m at BB, as far as coming down working out of the office, you know, just being able to bounce ideas off of Justin and a lot of different guys, you know, all the fertilizer guys are here. And so they keep us in, keep me in the loop on what’s going on with the market. And, you know, kale will say hey, you know, that’s trending up, you know, how are you at Forestdale? Call Mike, you know, talk to him about that? Are we in a position where we want to buy or you know, a barge of SGN Yuri comes through at that Scattergood price. Hey, do we have the capacity I think we ought to buy now and so that that is worked out well. Yeah, that
Jeremy Kellett 29:38
being here and around all those people on his catalog, trucking and back there in dispatch. I gotta be able to hear those guys and yeah, to know what’s going on with it. And that’s the same with you coming in, you kind of get your kind of back out of the everyday chores at BBN. You’re gonna see what’s going on and what needs to operate more efficiently. Yeah, obviously. Yeah, that could help For sure, yeah, it’s been good. What about the you know the highs Oakley gives me more resources. Yeah, so,
Mike Tribley 30:05
so with Oakley purchasing tnn Oakley by what Justin was, Dustin was saying that, with us having the capabilities of the guys down here at North Little Rock, watching the markets, finding good pricing on products, we use a specialized products and Forestdale we use a smaller size Prill on all of our ingredients to where because we’re in the turf industry, that we will want more coverage with a smaller Prill that will you know, then at AG grade Prill. So we’re running at a smaller grade Prill to get in the turf market. So we got Kel. And some of these other guys who are seen out of St. Louis, who is watching the markets for me, helped me out on that part. That’s why Hey, they can you know, you need some product and we communicate back and forth. And that has helped us tremendously having freight as well. And so for that having another terminal to offload our barges to it’s been great.
Jeremy Kellett 31:03
Yeah, you know, I have done a lot of podcasts and upset with the port 33 Guys, and I’ve sat down with Jane Tran. And now you guys were forced to and you just hear a lot of the same stuff. You know, the same verbiage helps. It’s helped with Kip, everybody. I mean, it’s just, you know, with each one, there’s so many similarities to it. And it’s made it better. Yeah, give him more opportunities. So what’s really hip? What’s the future look like?
Dustin Wilcox 31:34
Future looks great. Yeah, I was just talking with Justin this morning about, you know, a possibility, you know, in another state of doing, you know, some bagging there. That’s the thing with Oakley, a lot of opportunities come to us just because of the way the company operates and the reputation and things like that people are constantly calling down here. You know, inquiring about things and new opportunities out of Forestdale I mean, there’s a lot of great growth going on there, with turf companies. Our Farm and Home Stores are constantly expanding. So all of those things were really great. As far as the baby location, we’re starting to do some custom bagging, for we’re custom bagging a deer product right now for a company. So that’s bringing in some additional knowledge a little more about that. Yeah, some additional revenue. Also, picking up some new customers down this way as far as the fertilizer goes. So, so far, so good. It looks good. The future looks bright. Well,
Mike Tribley 32:38
yeah. You know, and for Estelle, we rely on a lot of weather, a lot of weather. You know, the last couple of winters have been pretty mild. So we’re sitting on a lot of ice melts. We would love to have a good winter here. Are you like I tell everybody I’d love for it to snow from Kansas City to Cincinnati. Give me a couple of those right there. And yeah, they were looking really good. Yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 33:03
Yeah, I think a lot of people don’t realize that Asheville salt is a big, big deal product. That means, we’re down south, we don’t see much of it, you know, but up north, that is a lot of it.
Mike Tribley 33:14
Yep. And you gotta have it, you know, if you’re going to be in the business, it’s be in the business or be out of the business. So it’s, you know, it’s Feast or famine. You know, if you’re in those years that it doesn’t snow yet. Oh, yeah. You’re sitting on a lot of products for the next coming season. But in the years that it does snow, there you are. Yeah. And you know, there’s a lot of risk and reward to it. So we go.
Jeremy Kellett 33:35
Good conversation. Phil’s one story
Dustin Wilcox 33:38
I wanted to share with you before we leave. I was out in Red River in New Mexico back in February out there snowskin With my family and we went in a little mom and pop hardware store there and walked around the corner and there was a little incap of Earth was I smelled which is actually bagged and our product trademark product bagged in Forestdale really, and you know, when you talk about the scope of Oakley, and you look at you know, we’ve got guys in the the office that are buying internationally. So a guy from our company bought salt in Egypt. And then we have a guy in our office who has arranged the vessel to bring it from Egypt to the Gulf. And then Oakley barging. Jan Tran, you know, picks it up at the Gulf goes up to St. Louis, to that facility, all floats there, put on an Oakley truck, brought to Forestdale put in a bag and then ends up in New Mexico as you know Oakley has handled that product from the origin of the product all the way to the finished goods. So it’s pretty amazing to sit back and think about how diverse we are as a company and all the things that we do, how
Jeremy Kellett 34:54
small we are, but how much we Kover Yeah, which we can do. Yeah But yes, I am opening it. And that’s what I wanted to bring to our listeners. You know, just another part of Bruce Oakley that not everybody knows about. Yeah. So hopefully might give you a little exposure to absolutely yeah. You got some guys out there that’s got yards. Yes, they need a green thumb up.
Dustin Wilcox 35:17
Yeah Greenskeeper’s secret is that our rings keep her secret. Yeah,
Mike Tribley 35:20
That’s our trademark.
Dustin Wilcox 35:21
That’s our trademark fertilizer brand. So yeah.
Jeremy Kellett 35:23
Are you gonna get into any of the deer products? I know you just made them a little bit but you know how they’ve got all that seed and it’s a plan for food plot stuff. And
Mike Tribley 35:33
so that is in the works. Well, only leave it at that, but it’s in the works.
Jeremy Kellett 35:40
It works. There’s lots of stuff after the back. Yeah. Well, good, great conversation, guys. I appreciate y’all doing it. Mike. I know you gotta get headed back north to four steel and Dustin, appreciate Joe wanting to do this with me. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Not wanting to do it. Some people like it, but it always works out well. It’s always good conversation by hand. So appreciate y’all doing. Good to meet you, man. Good to meet you. Thanks, everybody for listening to the Oakley podcast. Once again, bringing some good information that I probably didn’t know stuff I didn’t know. It’s always good and learning and hopefully it just gives you the idea of how far Bruce Oakley reaches. So appreciate you. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Oakley podcast: trucking, business, and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show on the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience, so if you’ve got a question, comment, or just want to say hello, head over to our website, theoakleypodcast.com, and click the “leave a comment” button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.