About Douglas Col
In a September 2024 interview, Saia President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe discussed the company's growth and market conditions. He stated that no single customer represents more than 5% of Saia's business and noted that retail business has increased relative to industrial or manufacturing customers. Holzgrefe said the company opened 12 facilities since the beginning of 2023 and acquired 28 facilities following Yellow's exit from the market, describing the opportunity as "once in a lifetime." He characterized the less-than-truckload (LTL) sector as "pretty mixed" broadly, but attributed Saia's growth to its "core execution" and ability to replicate high service levels for customers in new markets.
Holzgrefe also addressed the impact of near-shoring, calling it a "tailwind" for the business. He cited the opening of a terminal in Laredo, Texas, acquired as part of the Yellow transaction, as an example of supporting customers through this trend. He emphasized that LTL assets are flexible and allow the company to serve multiple segments of the U.S. economy.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Douglas Col's recent appearances.
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Transcript (10 segments)
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Narrator0:00
Starbucks are reporting this week. We have Fritz joining us with more.
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Douglas Col0:06
Good morning, Frank.
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Frank0:09
Investors are excited about your stock. I want to talk about your customers. Where are you seeing the biggest increase in demand? The 18% pop year over year.
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Douglas Col0:21
Frank, our footprint is a wide range and reflecting the macro economy. No customer represents more than 5% of our book of business. I would say if you look at the industries across the book, retail businesses for us are up a little bit more relative to what our industrial or manufacturing customers are here. Overall, our growth is reflective of what we are seeing around customer acceptance of expansion strategy that we have been on for a number of years. We opened 12 facilities since the beginning of the last year and we are seeing the impact of that in our result.
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Frank1:01
You are opening new facilities. The headline of your company and other LTL carriers opening up more facilities. We are talking about a freight recession. You are opening up more facilities, but the market is soft. How does that work?
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Douglas Col1:18
When Yellow exited the market, we had a long developed real estate pipeline of growing our footprint to become more of a national carrier. We acquired 28 facilities as part of the Yellow process and added that to the pipeline of opportunities. A terminal in the LTL business is specific to the industry. It is meant to be used across stock freight. As we opened those across the country, we had the opportunity to replicate the service we have been providing customers in locations. It is an opportunity to take share and grow and support our customers as they continue to develop and build their business. It is an important part of our strategy, the Yellow opportunity, certainly was a once in a lifetime opportunity to prime the pump, if you will, to long arm the process.
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Frank2:13
I want to talk about the broader freight market. Old Dominion out with the update as well. We saw an acceleration of your business between April and May.
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Douglas Col2:27
I think specifically for Saia, what you see is the development of the new facilities. Our ability to replicate a high level of service for customers. They appreciate that. When you go into a new market, we can go to the market with the customer like Starbucks or Home Depot or Lowe's or Exxon or Halliburton, whatever, and replicate the service facility. That is what you are seeing in our result. LTL specifically is an important part of the supply chain. LTL assets are flexible. They allow us to move across multiple segments across the U.S. economy. We will have a number of products on them at the same time. It is an important part of the process or industry. LTL is important. I think Saia, specifically, growth is tied to our core execution. I think if you look at the broader business, it is pretty mixed for LTL broadly.
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Frank3:34
Fritz, we're almost out of time. Near-shoring, is that a tailwind of the business?
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Douglas Col3:41
I think it is a tailwind. We are opening in Laredo, Texas, which is part of the Yellow business. That near-shoring is important to provide to our customers and...
