The last decade of the 20th Century, and early years of C21 witnessed a flurry of mergers and acquisitions in the cement, precast and thermoplastic pipe industries. There are now signs that business models are shifting to concentrate on one-stop shopping for all materials and products, and the marketing of sanitary and storm sewer products as complete systems.
What is your opinion on this apparent shift to servicing the needs of municipalities, agencies, developers, and contractors? Is it wise to present businesses as the single source for all needs, or best to focus on core competencies? Is there a danger that single source businesses will promote the use of products with cheaper capital cost at the expense of more expensive capital cost products that would be the best product for the application? Is the acumen of competition among materials and products being diminished in the buried infrastructure marketplace?