Meet a Precaster-By-Crete

This month we are pleased to feature By-Crete as part of our Meet a Precaster blog series. The following answers have been provided by Jay and David Behney, President/CEO and CTO of Behney Corp (t/a By-Crete and Behney Fabrication).

Don’t forget to check out all of our Meet a Precaster blog posts and if you’re an NPCA producer member and would like to be featured in a future Meet a Precaster post, please send an email to NPCA’s director of communication, Kirk Stelsel.

Q: Where are you located?
A: Lebanon, Pennsylvania (10 miles east of Hershey).

Q: How long have you been in business?
A: The initial business, Behney Fabrication, was started in 1965 by Charles Behney. By-Crete was started in 1992 by Jay Behney, one of Charlie’s sons.

Q: How long have you been a member of NPCA?
A: Since 2001.

Q: Why did you join NPCA and what are the best benefits?
A: The NPCA offers many benefits, but our favorite would be the media sources that they provide to keep us updated with the newest innovations and technologies within the industry. Making sure that our company is adaptable and innovative allows us to succeed even through difficult environments.

Q: What products do you produce?
A: We provide: vaults & meter pits, end walls, trenches, inlet boxes, inlet tops, grates, manholes, box culverts, utility tunnels, grease traps/oil separators, custom fabricated pieces (trash racks, weir plates, etc.).  We also build custom forms for the precast market.

Q: Have you introduced any new products lately?
A: Large capacity underground water detention systems.

Q: What are the top attributes of precast concrete?
A: Longevity of life, increased durability, and streamlined installation over cast-in-place.

Q: What has your company done to fight off the recession?
A: We have increased our market share by finding new ways to limits costs of production so that we can ship products longer distances without being overpriced. We have also diversified our product line and offered additional services to meet the needs of our customers.

Q: What have you seen in your area as far as recovery?
A: We have not seen a lot of increased activity in our area as of yet. We are always looking for different indicators that will shed light on the economy, and we feel that the first half of 2013 will be in a positive direction; but the second half of 2013 into 2014 may take a mild recession. However, based on the continued decline in the value of cash, we feel that it may be a good time for companies to focus on their primary growth strategies and spend cash for capital.

Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: We will continue to provide the highest quality products to our customers, and will also be investigating a few new avenues of business that will allow us to strengthen the overall company’s portfolio; whether this may be through acquisitions or new ventures, we have yet to see.

Jay (l) and David (r) Behney.

The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the member, and not of NPCA or any of its employees..