Groendyke Transport acquires Linden Bulk, adding assets to portfolio

Oklahoma-based Groendyke Transport Inc. has acquired Linden Bulk Transportation, adding a number of assets to its tank truck carrier portfolio, the company announced Monday.

Both companies specialize in hazardous material hauling. Groendyke Transport, which is headquartered in Enid, reentered the northeastern market through the acquisition for the first time since 2015, adding new terminals in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It also expanded its presence in the Gulf. It plans to immediately begin servicing Linden customers after having closed the deal Sept. 30.

Groendyke Transport CEO Greg Hodgen spoke with The Oklahoman to discuss the company and industry.

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Q: What operations does Groendyke Transport have in Oklahoma?

Hodgen: Well, our headquarters is in Oklahoma, but we’re spread out around the U.S. We’re a bulk carrier, which means we haul many liquids in tanks. We started in 1932, still owned by the Groendyke family. They live in Enid and that’s where our headquarters has been since 1933 or 1934. Started out in the Panhandle, in Beaver, Oklahoma… We primarily haul chemicals and petroleum products throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Q: How valuable is it to have a presence in other states and in the Gulf for the industry?

Hodgen: It’s very important because they are our centers of petrochemical activity, and they’ve grown a lot since there’s been some onshoring and nearshoring of chemicals and chemical production in the United States. So, it gives us the ability to have two-way hauling and a presence in areas where that production is. The biggest market is in Houston, Texas.

That’s by far the largest production area, then you have the Great Lakes region and the Northeast, where there is still a lot of chemical and petrochemical production. So, having operations that we can tie those together and build out what we call a freight network is very valuable, and we’re pretty bullish on the long-term prospects of the chemical production in the United States. We’re going to get supplies of natural gas, which is one of the feedstocks for a lot of chemical production. There’s been a tremendous amount of investment by chemical companies to build more capacity to produce in the United States.

So, that’s what we do. We do it well. We’re considered one of the safest carriers in the states for hauling hazardous materials. So, that would be things that are flammable, combustible, corrosive that go in these tanks that we pull. And, we just think our expertise is going to really be well-manned in this industry for a long time.

Q: And in those northeastern states, how valuable is it to have more assets in those states?

Hodgen: When I talked about building that network, if you have trucks that load products from the Gulf coast and they go to those other areas, then they can get reloaded with product going a different direction from those regions. So, it’s nice to have operations on both ends.

Think of them as traffic lanes, where product moves to and from. That’s one of the reasons why we were so interested in this acquisition. Most of the production that we bought with this company is where we already had facilities, so it’s nice to bolt on where we already have facilities in Texas and Louisiana. But this expands our reach to areas where we didn’t have a presence. Now, we do.

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Q: When exactly will the deal officially close?

Hodgen: It did, just about an hour ago. So now, we’re working on, we call it ‘painting it red.’ Our company colors are red so when we buy a company, the process of making it granite, so that’s what’s starting today. And there will be bumps in the road, and you know, people do things differently in different companies.

This is the first time we’ve acquired a company like this in the last five or six years, and our people are outstanding at this part of the process. So, they’ll welcome the new people. They’ll start teaching them how we do things. We’ll find some things that they do well that might be good for us to learn. It’s an existing part of it. It’ll have some bumps in the road, but we’ll get through it. We’ll look back in a few months and be pleased with how its going.

Q: How does this position the company among competitors?

Hodgen: We’re about the 10th largest in our state, and this will probably move us up a little bit. Maybe, we’ll be seventh or eighth or ninth, and that’s where we want to be at. The largest carriers in our space are primarily owned by private equity. We’re not going to be able to compete with that. We’re truly a private company. We finance our own deals. We pay for our own deals. We don’t have any other backers. We’ll probably never threaten the top four or five as far as size. We just want to remain relevant. Most of our shippers want to deal with companies that can cover their needs across the United States, including Mexico and Canada. And if we remain relevant in size, and we think that’s in the top 10, that’s the best opportunity to service companies that need that presence around the U.S.

Q: How will consumers be affected or how will they benefit from this acquisition?

Hodgen: I think the best benefit is that our safety reputation is second to none. We’ve won the National North American Safety Champion Award nine times in our history. The closest carrier to us has won it about three times. So, we’re putting the best drivers on the road carrying hazardous materials that are really intentional about safety. That’s the number one consumer benefit whenever we buy a company, we bring our brand of safety to it. There’s a lot to that. I can give you 30 minutes about what makes us really safe — technology, training, that kind of stuff.

Number two, we’re able to deliver capacity. When the economy kicks off — right now, I would say the economy is OK. But, the freight economy has slowed and has been slow since late 2022, early 2023. As those products start to ramp up and capacity is needed, it’s really what we’re best at, is delivering capacity to get products moving, which stimulates the economy, stimulates manufacturing.

Most manufacturing has a tank truck involved early in the process, so [they use] companies like us that are really focused and intentional about delivering capacity, that’s got a really well-trained driver with all the right credentials [and] with a nice, modern truck and trailer. That’s what we do well, and we’re going to be there for those shippers as their volumes go up, we’ll be able to handle that.