ACG Houston April 9 Lunch Meeting

Join us to learn from Leslie Doggett about his journey founding and growing Doggett Industries. Doggett built the company over 25 years through a series of strategic acquisitions, subsequent turnarounds, and hands-on leadership in operations.  Since 1993, Doggett has completed 18 major acquisitions (involving over 100 dealership locations), all representing first-tier manufacturers.  A few key milestones of the company’s growth include the acquisition of Doggett’s first Toyota Material Handling location in Houston (from the Friedkin Group in 1993); expansion into the John Deere Construction & Forestry business in South Texas (from a private company in 2005), East Texas and Louisiana (acquired directly from John Deere, NYSE: DE, in 2007), and Houston, Beaumont, and Bryan (from Rush Enterprises, Nasdaq: RUSHA, in 2010); expansion into the Freightliner Truck business in South Texas (from a private company in 2013), El Paso (from Stewart & Stevenson, formerly NYSE: SVC, in 2014), and Arkansas (from a private company in 2018); expansion into Link-Belt Cranes in Louisiana (2016); and acquisition of Lone Star Ford in Houston (from Sonic Automotive, NYSE: SAH, in 2018).  Doggett has now grown to 1500+ full time employees, including 600+ determined, factory-trained technicians.  Each brand Doggett represents is either number 1 or number 2 in their respective industries by market share.

Doggett currently operates over 35 dealership locations with annual sales exceeding $1 billion.  In 2015, Doggett moved into its current flagship dealership, where the company is headquartered.  The facility sits on 22 acres on the North Freeway in Houston and the 14,022 square foot building is John Deere’s largest dealership facility in the world. In 2018, the Houston Chronicle ranked Doggett the 9th largest private company headquartered in Greater Houston. In all of these pursuits, the company has continually focused on delivering unique solutions that enable customers to achieve the lowest possible equipment ownership costs while maximizing uptime.

About Leslie Doggett

Leslie Doggett is a life-long Houstonian who became acquainted with heavy equipment in the 1980s as a salesman in the oilfield services business.  Leslie attended the University of Texas earning a BBA in Finance, and has been married to his wife, Ann, for over thirty years.  They have two children and two grandchildren.