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LeeBoy held a celebration of its 60th anniversary at its U.S. manufacturing facility in Lincolnton, N.C.
Since 1964, the Lee family has been building and delivering products for the commercial asphalt industry.
In 2024, LeeBoy is marking its 60th year in business and on March 20, 2024, the company held a celebration at its U.S. manufacturing facility in Lincolnton, N.C.
BR Lee developed the first self-propelled commercial paver in 1970. That Model 500 featured three patents — for its tilt hopper, its hydraulic extensions and its under-auger cutoff gates — and opened the door to profitable commercial paving for thousands of paving contractors, according to LeeBoy.
BR's son, Mike Lee, is still involved in the business today. He has seen the company grow and change in many ways over the years but listening to their customers on how they can help them improve their business performance has always been a priority at LeeBoy, he said.
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"I've seen a lot of hard work over the years to get LeeBoy to where it is today," Lee added. "We are continuously making our products better, faster and more reliable for our customers and dealers. We value feedback from our customers to build and deliver the best products."
From humble beginnings in BR's garage where he built one drag box, the company has invested heavily in its own operations over the years.
"LeeBoy's mission is to improve our customers' lives and livelihood," said Shannon Seymour, president and CEO of LeeBoy. "We aim to produce the most productive, reliable and easy-to-use equipment in the industry. We listen to the voice of the customer through our dealers, through sales and service associates and directly at our factory proving grounds."
LeeBoy also has also been an innovator in its equipment development, improving models with customer requests and as the needs of the industry have changed, the company said. To do this, LeeBoy has vastly improved its internal processes to be able to achieve the needs of its customers.
"LeeBoy has invested heavily in manufacturing operations," Seymour added. "We have grown from a lean and scrappy, yet effective business, into a more structured organization with documented processes and procedures. We also view service parts fulfillment as a key element in keeping our customers up and running, which keeps them buying LeeBoy equipment."
Throughout the years, the company has transformed through strategic team hiring and development, reaffirming the LeeBoy name as a valued partner in the industry, the company said.
"In 2001, LeeBoy hired the first group of engineers to assist in creating drawings to develop higher quality parts to make our machines function at peak performance," said Mark Bolick, general manager of Product Support of LeeBoy. "Over the last 15 years, our engineering team has vastly improved documentation for equipment and parts manuals to ensure that our products continue to be the leaders of the commercial asphalt paving industry."
LeeBoy has advanced in service processes and operations to avoid machine down time for customers.
"Five years ago, the field service representatives were relocated into the manufacturing facility, forming the Rapid Response team as we know today," Bolick added. "This team is dedicated service support for our dealers. LeeBoy Rapid Response along with our certified service schools, help our dealer technicians know more about our products, which allows them to make faster repairs for the end users."
While much has changed over the years at LeeBoy, the feeling of family is something that has remained the same and those relationships will continue to drive success for the business and its customers, the company said.
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"The close-knit feeling that emerged from the Lee family business years ago, still exists today with our customers and dealers," Bolick said. "We continue to introduce our valued business partners to the latest trends and technology to outpace the competition. Our customers are the backbone to our success and we will always continue to build our equipment with the paving professional in mind."
And, according to the company, while the past 60 years at LeeBoy have been full of success and growth, the company is showing no signs of slowing down — and no plans in changing how it has always put the needs of their customers first.
"The future success of LeeBoy is dependent on the high level of dedication and commitment we provide to our dealers and customers," said Bryce Davis, director of sales of LeeBoy. "As we continue to listen to feedback from the field, top quality products are being manufactured, resulting in more profitability."
The company is investing heavily in research and development around new products and innovations. LeeBoy said it remains at the forefront of the industry when adapting its machines for impending regulations that may impact its customers and the company currently manufactures four electric-powered machines and will continue to innovate as the industry demands.
"Our product development team as well as our sales and service support team are stronger than ever, enabling record production capacity," said Seymour. "And each day, we are looking for ways to be better. We are never satisfied and will continuously innovate and improve to provide the best paving solutions to the paving contractor."
LeeBoy will be celebrating its 60th anniversary throughout the year and the company said it looks forward to seeing customers at its events and on job sites to share stories of their own. CEG
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