A History of Manufacturing Excellence
The Heil Co. was founded in 1901 by Julius P. Heil. His business, the Heil Railjoint Company, pioneered the use of electric welding to produce fabricated steel products. The company distinguished itself by developing innovative products like the first steel truck body and the electrically welded kerosene tank. In 1916, the Heil Co. set the foundation for its future tank trailer business by providing the U.S. Army with a superior design for welded water tanks that the troops were able to use while pursuing Pancho Villa in the wilds of northern Mexico. In 1919, the acquisition of Hydro Hoist Co. brought with it the capability and technology to produce dump body hoists. Heil’s original dump body business served as the foundation for its entry into the refuse collection vehicle market. In 1937, the company sold its first enclosed conveyor-type garbage collection bodies with rear-loading hoppers to New York City. To this day, New York City still relies on Heil refuse collection vehicles to keep the area clean for its more than 8 million inhabitants.

By 1970, company management had moved manufacturing from Milwaukee to several other locations in order to reduce costs and achieve efficiencies that could only be realized in geographically decentralized, state-of-the-art manufacturing plants. However, they quickly outgrew their financial resources.

In the late 1980s, Heil senior management began to consider various financial options for meeting their ongoing growth initiatives. At this time, the company was owned by the Heil family, senior management, and its employees. In considering an IPO versus a sale to an investor, two issues were paramount to the family and board: first, continuing to provide innovative products and services focused on customer satisfaction; and second, maintaining a strong management team able to drive growing career opportunities for the company’s more than 1,200 employees.

Joseph F. Heil, Jr., believed, “A company’s success depends on its employees­—employees with the attitudes of ownership and know-how to do things right the first time. Putting the customer first has always been Heil’s commitment to the industry, and we have proven that it works.”

With Joe Heil’s views in mind, the family and board decided against an IPO and instead pursued the sale of the business to another company that mirrored Heil’s culture, operating philosophy, and beliefs. This move eventually brought Heil and Dover together after Heil solicited an investment banker to prepare an information package, screen potential buyers, and seek bids through a standard auction process.

Understandably, management was concerned about what would happen as the sales process unfolded: Would there be any interest? At what price? Could they find a new owner with a similar business philosophy? What would happen to their jobs? What would be the reaction among customers if word of the potential sale leaked out?

Relationship Building
Dover learned about the opportunity to purchase Heil very early in the auction process. At the first meeting between Dover and Heil executives, it was
clear that a good fit existed if a “win-win” scenario could be reached. Each side was committed to finding a true middle ground.

Senior executives at both companies then undertook a serious due diligence process. During this period, every aspect of the acquisition was debated and many potential deal-breaking issues were discussed and settled. Employees, meanwhile, were kept well informed of the potential sale and its implications for them and their families.

The Heil Co. was acquired by Dover in 1993, and all of Heil’s stakeholders—customers, channel partners, suppliers, employees, managers, and owners—remain pleased with the results. Heil employees even chose to participate in Dover’s 401K plan, affording them further opportunity to shape their future by sharing in the strength of a large corporation.

The Heil Company’s two primary areas of market and product focus were growing so fast at the time of purchase that management decided to divide the company into two independent Dover operating companies: Heil Trailer International and Heil Environmental. In each case, the president of the new company had been a business area general manager prior to the Dover acquisition. Larry Gray, then Heil’s president and COO, had planned to take early retirement after the sale, but instead liked the Dover business model so much that he ended up assuming a senior position with Dover Industries.

Since being acquired by Dover, both Heil Trailer International and Heil Environmental have undergone significant change and growth. Dover’s investments in the two companies have included major capital expenditures, joint ventures, and acquisitions, and the match has been perfect. Dover’s commitment to autonomy and growth has not only kept the Heil name alive and intact, but it has facilitated a scale of growth that expanded the reach of the Heil name to levels never before imagined possible.

Heil Trailer International (HTI)
Since 1993, Heil Trailer International has grown tenfold and become a major global player. By continuing to provide its customers with innovative products and services that are quality driven (in 1996, Heil Trailer International became the first tank trailer manufacturer to be ISO9001 certified), HTI catapulted to become the global leader in the aluminum tank trailer market. “Our employees have been able to reach their potential since we’ve been bought by Dover,” said Heil Trailer International’s president, Andy Fincher. “With Dover’s resources and backing, we have substantially grown our business, made strategic acquisitions that have added value for the company’s stakeholders, and realized the company’s vision of being ‘. . . the best transportation solution provider in the world.’”

Continuing the Tradition: Providing Superior Products and Services
Dover’s financial backing meant that HTI could double the size of its flagship Athens, Tennessee, facility, the “largest, most modern trailer equipment plant in the world,” according to Fincher. The plant serves as a research and development center where new products are developed before they are deployed to other Heil Trailer International plants and markets around the world.

One of those plants, Heil Asia, located in Thailand, is a fully equipped, modern manufacturing plant developed in conjunction with Heil Environmental in 1994. Now, the company exclusively builds trailers for the Major Oil Companies and private haulers in this strategic part of the world, as well as for the chemical and dry bulk markets around the Asia/Oceania region, including China. Incidentally, in May 2007, Heil was the first foreign company to present to China’s Special Purpose Vehicle industry, and the company is working with Wuhan Hanyang Special Purpose Vehicle Research Institute to establish the laws and regulations for the Chinese tank trailer market.

In 1998, HTI built a facility in Argentina and entered the lucrative Latin American market. Heil SA, as it is known today, is positioned to enter one of the largest trailer markets in the world, Brazil.

One of Heil’s most successful acquisitions was its purchase of J&L Tank in Rhome, Texas. This 1993 acquisition proved to be a brilliant strategic move solidifying its dry bulk (and later crude oil) trailer market position. J&L Tank, then a small producer of dry bulk trailers built for plastics, food, and cement for the continental United States, expanded into other markets (Canada and Mexico) and product segments. Two years later, the Trailmaster brand (Fort Worth, Texas) was acquired and subsequently consolidated into the J&L facility. Trailmaster was a manufacturer of crude oil trailers later rebranded as Heil. Both the J&L dry bulker and Heil brand crude oil trailers have grown exponentially due to an aggressive growth strategy supported by Dover.

In 2000, HTI purchased Kalyn Siebert, a leading manufacturer of low bed and heavy haul trailers with products in both defense and commercial market segments. This acquisition facilitated HTI’s growth in the Defense Products market. Since then, HTI has been named the Department of Defense’s sole supplier for M-Series refuelers (built in Athens, Tennessee), and has expanded its defense business at Kalyn Siebert to include major repairs to war damaged equipment and replacement parts. Today, Defense Products for HTI significantly contribute to total sales and earnings revenue.

Heil Trailer International’s strategic initiatives and capital investments in its core business demonstrate what can happen when Dover provides a strong company the financial backing required to achieve its ultimate potential.

Heil Environmental
“When Dover began discussing their ‘hands-off’ policy of letting us grow our own business, we were extremely skeptical,” said Glenn Chambers, former president of Heil Environmental.

“They told us we would be in a position to make long-term instead of short-term decisions for the good of the company. They said we had a good team and it should stay in place. All of that was hard to believe. Everyone had a horror story about what happened when a company was sold to new owners. Years later, we were still waiting for the horror stories to happen.” (Chambers remained with Heil Environmental for ten years after the acquisition closed.)

Michael Jobe, current president of Heil Environmental, elaborated, “Dover has been extremely supportive of the decisions Heil Environmental has made in order to grow its refuse truck body business in an essentially mature market.

“They have been great at facilitating benchmarking, and we were able to get to know other similar companies within Dover that had been able to improve their fundamentals and raise their own expectations and overall performance. It has taken an investment in time and capital, but it’s working. Today, we continue to improve the Heil business year-over-year, and are now one of the top metric leaders within all of Dover.”

Heil Environmental, with Dover’s backing, has consistently invested in strategic add-on acquisitions and key capital projects. In addition to many large manufacturing and automation investments, Jobe particularly praised Dover’s willingness to fund wider ranging infrastructure investments. “In less than five years, we implemented entirely new integrated business systems (ERP, ADC, CRM, Configurator, VOIP phone systems, BI, and more) and completely renovated and expanded our Fort Payne flagship facility to create an engineering center of excellence, an industry-leading training and customer support call center, new supply chain facilities, and new human resources facilities—all to support the areas of investment we saw as necessary to elevating and sustaining our long-term growth strategies.”

Based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Heil Environmental manufactures refuse truck bodies in Fort Payne, Alabama, and Fife, Scotland, as well as cart tippers at its Bayne Manufacturing business in Greenville, South Carolina (acquired in 2000). Many countries around the world also offer good opportunity for growth, and potential acquisitions exist in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

“But we are not under any pressure,” Jobe said. “Dover has encouraged us to continue the ongoing improvements with all of our existing businesses while looking opportunistically for the ‘right’ forms of further expansion.”