DY Concrete Pumps is a Texas-sized success story. Based in Alvarado, near Dallas-Fort Worth, the company offers high-end concrete pumps, a vast inventory of spare parts, and comprehensive customer support.
It stocks concrete pumps that will “fit any application you have,” from residential to commercial and beyond, according to Vice President of Operations, Wayne Allen.
Truck-mounted line and boom pumps are DY’s main products. Line pumps feature a compact, stationary pump mounted on a truck or trailer and a long hose, and are nimble enough to access tight spaces and provide concrete pouring that is relatively easy to direct. Such pumps are well suited for creating driveways, swimming pools, hill stabilization, and other residential projects as the hose can reach backyards that would be inaccessible for a truck to pour into directly.
Boom pumps feature high-volume capacity and long booms that reach over obstacles to transport concrete anywhere on a job site. Larger than line pumps, boom pumps can pour out vast quantities of concrete in a short period. They are commonly used on large infrastructure projects like airports, bridges, dams, tunnels, highway overpasses, parking structures, high-rises, and building foundations.
This pumping equipment requires less water than concrete mixer trucks or bucket mixing systems. The resulting concrete has excellent long-term structural integrity with minimal shrinking and cracking which, in turn, means lower repair, replacement, and maintenance costs for property owners.
Pumps and parts sold by the company are manufactured by DY Innovate (DYI), a South Korean firm that also makes cranes and hydraulic cylinders, among other types of industrial equipment. DYI in turn is part of the larger Korean corporation, DY. Concrete pumps made by DY Innovate are shipped across the ocean and transported to DY Concrete Pumps in Texas for finishing touches.
The company receives “a completed concrete pump with a boom mounted on it. Once it gets here, we assemble it; we mount it on the truck; we weld it into place; we do all the electrical and driveline work. Anything as far as moving axles, adding axles, things like that, we do in-house. We also paint in our facility. I would put the DY paint job against anybody’s in the industry, period. Our guys are the best out there,” states Allen.
The company then subjects its pumps to a rigorous quality control process. Pumps are inspected, scrutinized, and put through various tests, including a procedure in which they are made to pump water to ensure everything is working as it should. Only after the quality control team signs off on a pump is it ready to deliver to a customer.
While DYI sells its equipment around the world, DY Concrete Pumps concentrates on the North American market. DY mainly sells directly, but also has dealer representatives that distribute their products. The company has a branch in Calgary, Alberta, and a dealer relationship in Dundee, Ohio.
In addition to pumps, the company offers a wide array of spare parts and excellent customer care. The firm maintains an emergency contact line and can also repair concrete pumps manufactured by other companies. Repair and replacement work can cover booms, hydraulic pumps and motors, electrical systems, drivelines, and other elements.
“We’re very proud of our service center,” notes Marketing Director, Braden Huggins. “It’s one of the only dedicated concrete pump service centers in the country.”
Customer care is central to what the company calls ‘the DY difference’—a set of values and services built around “the personal touch,” he adds.
He cites the case of a customer in South Carolina who ran a small concrete pumping company. The customer managed to “plug it up entirely with concrete. So that concrete set inside all forty meters of pipe, and he had a job that could not be missed 48 hours from then,” recalls Huggins.
The client’s other truck was busy, so he raced nonstop from Charleston to DY in Texas, just to get serviced. While it would have been more convenient to hire a local company to work on the pipe, the customer preferred to deal with DY. Within 24 hours, DY manufactured a new pipe system and changed the pipe system on the client’s truck, and the customer made good on his scheduled pumping job.
“We’re not a small company, but relative to our competitors, we are smaller in terms of manpower,” explains Huggins. “But we use that to our advantage to have that personal interaction with each customer,” he says.
“There are other concrete pumps out there that do the job, but when you call DY and you buy a DY product, you buy the family,” adds Allen.
The company’s impressive product line and services are all the more remarkable given the rather modest circumstances in which the company was launched in 2015. “The original building that DY started in—the entire building where parts, mounting, and service was happening—was smaller than our current parts warehouse. The building was around 5000 square feet and our parts warehouse today is closer to 7000,” says Huggins.
The current parts warehouse is housed in a new facility that includes “the largest paint booth in the South. That’s another thing we like to hang our hat on—an absolutely massive paint booth,” he adds.
The booth in question is big enough to accommodate an unfolded 63X-5RZ—a five-section, 63-meter RZ-Fold boom pump that is the company’s latest and longest pump. Previously, its boom pumps ranged from 33 to 57 meters. The RZ’s foldable arm is divided into five sections and is recommended for large-scale commercial construction. “As with everything, everyone wants bigger and better. So, now we’re punching in what they call the big boom class,” says Huggins.
The CTY-100 concrete line pump, meanwhile, is DY’s main concrete line pump. The pump weighs just under 19,000 pounds, boasts a hopper with a 14.1 cubic foot capacity, and is mounted on a pickup truck. The CTY-100 is a good choice for urban environments and tight workquarters.
Indeed, trade shows like World of Concrete are central to DY’s promotional efforts as it allocates a majority of its marketing budget to participating in such events. The company also maintains a lively social media presence, sharing engaging photos, videos, and interesting posts.
The company currently has over 80 employees, up from roughly 60 last year at this time. The increase in personnel is being driven by the fact that, “we still have a fairly strong economy. The construction industry hasn’t slowed down as a whole; if anything, it’s picked up in some aspects. Our customers still demand new equipment to get the job done,” says Allen.
Huggins says growing name recognition has also helped boost revenue, allowing DY to hire more staff. When it launched, some potential customers adopted a wait-and-see approach; would the fledgling firm succeed or go out of business shortly after it opened its doors? This question has since been answered, and clients now feel secure purchasing pumps from the thriving company.
As for new hires, Allen says, “We’re looking for people who care about what they’re doing. It’s not just a job; it’s a quality product that we put out. So they have to be dedicated to putting out a quality product and care about working in an environment in which everybody gets along.”
A good work ethic is another prerequisite. “It doesn’t matter how many hours it takes [to complete a job]. If you have to work overtime in our group, you work overtime, and we work as a team,” continues Allen.
COVID had a curious impact on DY. The company’s sales increased during the worst years of the virus. The team followed health protocols and managed to avoid the worst of the pandemic, although the disease is still causing supply chain bottlenecks and delays.
Other challenges include the industry-wide labor shortage. As has been noted in recent years, young people seem reluctant to enter the blue-collar workforce, making it difficult to replace existing workers, many of whom are approaching retirement age. It is a problematic situation, but DY remains eager to expand and optimistic about the future.
Going forward, the company is “always looking for new products,” and will maintain its focus on concrete pumps, says Allen.
“We want to double in size. We have plans to expand and build another manufacturing facility the same size as this one on the other side of the property, so we have plenty of room for growth. We will build a stronger team and take care of our customers.”
