Jim Spiegel: Obviously, you have a ton of experience, so I’d like to get some insights from you. What do you think are some of the strengths of the chemical grouting industry? What's kept you in it for 26 years? What do you like about the industry and why do you think it has such a strong future?
Jack Whitworth: I like the industry because it's challenging, no job typically is the same. You have to be quick on your toes, you have to be able to react to emergencies and that also ties into the fact that chemical grouts will always be necessary - but the job never gets boring. Plus, you get to see a lot of locations and areas that the general public (or probably at least 75 percent of the population) doesn't even know exist. It's exciting to get out there and be a solution provider. That's probably what really keeps me interested in it the most.
Jim: Yeah, I agree. That's a good point that the places that the chemical grouting industry takes you is just unbelievable - walking the gallery of a dam or something like that, it's a place you would otherwise never know existed. There are some really interesting projects out there. One of the things that is a concern, is the fact that no kid will say, “I want to be a sales professional for chemical grouts when I grow up.” How do you get young talent interested in chemical grouting?
Jack: Typically, you almost have to be lucky to run into somebody that has interest in it because it is the unknown that's out there. There is no magic because if we went to college fairs and different things like that, they’d think we were crazy because it's not that understood. But I think where we find most of our opportunities for representatives is typically in the field. That could be a contractor, that could be a distributor. We typically have a good knowledge of what their work habits are and really they have some fairly decent knowledge of chemical grouts because if you take a distributor salesman, for instance, you might find a guy that's selling a ton within one location. I want to meet that guy. I want to know why he's finding these opportunities and those are people we try to look out for.