ALTIX INDUSTRY CHAMPION INTERVIEW

Each quarter we sit down with industry executives and thought leaders to discuss the trends, challenges, and best practices that are transforming their businesses. Today, we are delighted to welcome Adam Hock, President of Brighton Tru-Edge.

About Our Industry Champion

Adam, it’s a pleasure for us to have you as our Industry Champion today. So please tell us a little bit about yourself — who you are, and also about your career trajectory before we dive into your company.

Thank you, Yannick. My education is in civil engineering, but I never really had the idea to practice engineering in the traditional sense. I really wanted to use it as a platform — a technical foundation — to be able to understand the product, no matter what field I got into.

I started my career as a field engineer through Enerfab’s co-op program, which was our field-and-shop fabrication business at the time. Then I moved into a field engineer role, laying out pressure vessels and tanks in the field, controlling the schedule, overseeing procurement, and getting information to the field teams to make them successful. I started my career hands-on with the product and really got to see how we fabricate our products. After some time, I transitioned into a sales role and sold pressure vessels and tanks to the U.S. market. This was through Enerfab Process Solutions, a sister company of Brighton. The products that Brighton makes are a key component of Enerfab’s final product. So, understanding the downstream impact of the products we make at Brighton was a great foundation for me.

After my role in sales, I ran one of our piping businesses, then later moved to Brighton Tru-Edge. I’ve been here since 2020, just as COVID hit. Today, I serve as President of Brighton Tru-Edge and Co-Managing Director of our new König + Co. business, a German company we acquired in 2025..

About HBH Holdings

Excellent. Well, thanks for sharing, Adam. As you were talking about the sister companies and they are all part of a holding company, HBH Holdings, can you please tell us more about the history and the journey of HBH, and for our readers also, what’s the bigger problem HBH Holdings is solving in the marketplace?

HBH Holdings is a privately held company with a portfolio built around manufacturing, construction, and maintenance, primarily serving industrial and light industrial markets. On the manufacturing side, the portfolio includes Enerfab Process Solutions, which fabricates pressure vessels, and Brighton Tru-Edge, which manufactures pressure vessel heads. Enerfab Power & Industrial and its subsidiary businesses focus on industrial maintenance, pipe fabrication, and structural steel fabrication, while BESCO and Engert  provide electrical construction, transmission and distribution, mechanical, and plumbing services. TankWorx focuses on field construction, including API and ASME tank construction.

Across the portfolio, we support customers through fabrication, construction, equipment setting, and maintenance services. The business is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, remains privately held, and all of the owners are still very active in all the businesses.

Thank you. Can you now tell us about the applications — what kind of industry segments and what kind of applications do you serve in the industry to serve your customers?

Our customers are in the industrial and heavy industrial sectors, including refineries, chemical plants, petrochemical plants, food and beverage plants, traditional power generation, data centers, and aerospace. We build things that support our daily lives. Almost anything we use on a daily basis passes through the pressure vessels, tanks, and columns we fabricate- paint, orange juice, beer, the fuel you put in your car, cleaning supplies, pharmaceutical products,  or even shampoos.

The Enerfab side of the business makes the full vessel, and the Brighton side makes the head of the vessel. Our recent acquisition in Germany, König + Co., does the same thing. We make the tops and bottoms, or the ends of horizontal vessels.

We will come to Konig + Co and your expansion into Europe, but first let’s stay in the U.S. for a second. You really have developed into a market leader in the United States. Tell us about that journey and how you differentiate from your competitors? What makes you the market leader?

What makes us the market leader, Yannick, is our unrelenting commitment to our customers. We are a customer-centric organization.  For every decision that we make, we ask ourselves: what does it do for our customers? We can have the best equipment, we can have the best people, the nicest facility, we can have all the technology in the world, but if it doesn’t do something to solve the customer’s pain point, none of that is relevant.

As a legacy business, we’ve been around since 1914, but legacy is not a strategy. We have to take the customer’s vision and ensure that everything we do aligns with what the customer needs. It has to drive lead times down, reduce costs, or improve quality and overall efficiency.  Otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. So, to answer your question, we became the market leader by staying focused on what the customer needs and making investments that align with where they’re going.

Excellent. I think that’s a recipe for success for the long term.  Now, let’s touch on selective acceleration — when to double down and when to step back. It looks like, in many markets I’ve been around, at some point, there is a certain level of commoditization happening. How do you, besides being super customer-focused, remain at the leading edge of competition? When do you know it’s time to accelerate or time to slow down?

You have to stay nimble because the market changes so fast. Staying nimble keeps us relevant. I tell the team: I need everybody to live in a 40% to 80% world. When making decisions, you cannot wait for 100% certainty. Waiting for 100% certainty can slow the business down. Over 80%, we’ve likely overanalyzed it and let the opportunity pass us by. Less than 40% certainty is careless. So, as the market shifts and we see a need to do something different, we have to live in a 40% to 80% world. In that range, we are moving quickly enough to react to the market, but not so quickly that we make careless decisions.

This is a good philosophy. I really like that 40–80%. I will remember that. And at the end, it’s all about decision-making and the quality of the decisions we make.  So a couple of years back, you made a big jump across the pond with a first acquisition in Europe — Konig + Co in Germany. Tell us about that journey and why Europe now.

We have known König for years. I had the opportunity to tour their business a few years ago.  It is an impressive operation. In the world of pressure vessel heads, König stands out as a real global leader. We have always had an eye on the König business, not only as peers but also because of their capabilities, strong business practices, and reputation. As we looked at the next step for our business, there was and still is a lot of opportunity domestically. But if we wanted to take a step into the global market, there was no better strategic fit than König + Co. For us, the opportunity to work with that team is a case where one plus one equals five. Their skill set, German engineering, and high level of quality are exactly what they are about.

As a result of the acquisition, we are able to bring their skill set and knowledge to our U.S. operations, while also sharing the experiences both teams have. Another important factor was that any partner had to fit our modelplus align culturally. König checked those boxes. That made it the right step for us, and now we’re excited to compete in the global market.

Well, congratulations for that bold move and for also finding that right fit and that right partner. Your company has obviously a lot of experience in mergers and acquisitions. What is your success recipe for successful past M&A integration? There are different philosophies — full integration, partial integration, or no integration at all, where they continue to operate as a standalone business. What has been your philosophy for your M&A transactions, and what has worked and what has not?

There are two parts to that. First, before any acquisition, we look for a business that aligns with what we’re looking for. I use a horse racing analogy because I am in Kentucky. We don’t bet only on the horse, meaning the business. We bet on the jockey, meaning the leader or management team. With a good management team and strong leaders, we can make a business work. We certainly look at performance, markets, and the usual due diligence, but we invest a lot of time in the people because that is what makes the difference. That is pre-transaction.

Post-transaction, there is a real balance between oversight and over-managing. We make the right adjustments so we do not inhibit the business from doing what made it successful. We identify the key pillars that can change the trajectory of the business and double down on those. Then we monitor those through KPIs and help the management team pivot. But we do not go in and do full overhauls. We look for good, solid businesses and strong management teams, then share best practices across the HBH companies.

Wonderful. So now, international M&A brings a very new dimension, which is culture, foreign languages, and foreign cultures. You would say even acquiring a business in Louisiana or in Texas is probably a different culture, but going to Europe is next level. What have been some learnings or observations about doing business in Europe, or doing business in Germany with the Germans? Any kind of observations or surprises on those cultural nuances?

There have certainly been surprises and a big learning curve for me. We are fortunate to have a very tight-knit culture in our domestic businesses. Tenure has a direct connection to that. When we acquired König, what stood out was how similar their values were. Their leadership team, shop professionals, and office professionals share the same pride in the work, humility, and customer focus that we value. That was a fortunate fit. Four thousand three hundred miles away, the businesses had never interacted before, yet the cultural alignment was remarkable.

Their methods of doing business are different. German laws, taxes, and business practices required us to get up to speed. We found good partners, including ALTIX, to help us understand the culture and the German business environment. Finding the right partners to help navigate cultural, legal, tax, and governmental were instrumental to our partnership with the König team.

Vision

Today the entire world now is a little bit complicated — some would argue it has always been — geopolitics, economy, and all of that. With that said, I assume you remain optimistic about the business in Europe, and even now that you have taken a first step in Europe, do you have further international ambitions? Or where will the focus be for the near future?

We are absolutely keeping an eye out for other international acquisitions. We are living in a time of uncertainty. Global markets affect fuel prices, energy availability, and disruption from wars. What we focus on has shifted. Domestically, we were somewhat insulated. Now we have to pay attention to global information to understand what’s happening. I remain optimistic. Markets will eventually stabilize. I also believe this environment could create consolidation opportunities globally. We view that as an opportunity. Periods of disruption can create opportunities to gain market share or acquire businesses where there is strategic fit. We are watching the global market, not just Europe, to round out our supply chain and capabilities and create different cost models for different customers.

I like your attitude and that optimism. At the end of the day, I think this is what makes true business leaders. If you go back long periods of time, the world has never been an easy place — with wars, geopolitical tensions, crises of all types. The good business leaders keep going, they stay optimistic, and they make the right calls at the right time. And as the saying goes, never waste a good crisis.

Ultimately, it comes down to resilience. If your company is in good shape, you can survive any crisis and then thrive when conditions improve. We all face the same playing field. It is not about beating oil prices or political issues. It is about outpacing the competition while staying focused on the customer. That focus has helped keep us successful.

So how do you, as a business, at times, face new challenges like tariffs and global supply chain realignment? Tell us about how you function as a team. How do you approach that?

Tariffs are a unique challenge. When we know the rules of engagement, we can react, pivot, and adjust the supply chain. What was unique about the tariffs is that they changed, changed again, and then created uncertainty about whether they would go away. The question became: do we wait, do we make a move, or do we readjust our supply chain? I have not seen a situation where the rules of engagement changed so quickly. But again, we were not the only ones trying to solve that problem. We do buy internationally, so the tariffs put a spin on our supply chain.

Fortunately, we have talented procurement professionals here. I give them a lot of credit. They calmly came back and said, “This is the pricing, these are the new rules, and this is how things come in.” They engaged legal professionals to help define the HTS codes on the products we import. They did a great job, but it took very quick pivoting to understand how things were changing. Domestically, we are seeing some benefits from reshoring and onshoring that are driving domestic manufacturing. From the domestic market, we are seeing benefits, while the international market faces pain points because importing products into the U.S. may not be as economically viable as it was previously.

Leadership & Culture

There are a couple of points I would like to come back to — culture and leadership. You mentioned that HBH and Konig are very closely aligned culturally. And as we all know, culture eats strategy for breakfast.  What do you think makes the strong culture of your company? If you can pinpoint that into two or three elements, what are those cultural factors? What makes your culture so strong?

Two things come to mind. The first is tenure. If you look around the office here, 10 years with the company still feels relatively new. Many people at Brighton have been here 20 or 30 years. You have to have the right culture to keep people that long, because they enjoy the workplace and the work. It becomes a reinforcing cycle: the culture helps retain people, and long-tenured people help sustain the culture. There is trust between people. We have been through the trenches together and through many hard times together. The degree of loyalty and trust makes it feel like a close-knit family. This connection compounds over time. I give credit to the leaders who came before me for creating something amazing.

The second part is staying humble. You have to recognize that we are all working toward the same goal. That applies to our office professionals, shop professionals, and customers. Knowing that we are all in this together helps build a strong culture.

Adam, we all know our leadership journeys have “aha” moments — I personally think a leadership journey is a never-ending learning journey. We keep learning about leadership, and we all have been marked in our careers by great leaders, mentors, and people who have really transmitted a lot of their leadership skills to us.  Is there anything that comes to mind where you had such leadership moments — where it clicks and you think, ‘Oh, this is super important, super critical’? And have you had some great mentors helping to shape the leader you are today?

Yes, absolutely. There are phenomenal leaders within the HBH family of companies, and I have been fortunate to work beside them. I’ve been at the company for 20 years, and many of them have been here much longer. My whole career, I’ve had the opportunity to watch how they operate. From the owners of the business on, as I mentioned before, it comes back to humility. It does not matter where you are in the company or what your role is. They are always willing to roll up their sleeves, stand side by side with you, and get into the trenches. You cannot run the business from an ivory tower. You have to be there with your team. When things get difficult, you have to get your hands dirty. That is something our leaders do very well, and I have learned a lot from watching that.

Personal

So being a leader is also very challenging. The days are long, and we are navigating one crisis after the next, one project after the next. How do you, as a leader, maintain clarity? Where do you find your energy? What’s your personal strategy to keep going and find the fuel you need to operate at your best?

This may not be the answer you hear most often, but I am a big fan of fun. One of our core values is fun. There are going to be long days, difficult situations, and problems in the workshop. No leader gets up each day knowing exactly what will happen or that everything will work out perfectly. But recognizing that, over the long term, we are going to have fun doing what we do makes a big difference. If you listen in our shop, you will hear people laughing. That atmosphere helps reduce stress when something goes wrong. We know we are in this together, and if we have fun and enjoy what we are doing, I believe everything works out.

For me, I get energy from the people I work with and from seeing everyone enjoy what they are doing. If you do not enjoy it, let’s find something else for you. Life is too short. We want people to get up every day and enjoy coming to work with energy and excitement. There will always be hard days, but as long as there are more days when you get up with energy and excitement, everything works out.

I have to admit, this is really a unique one, but I think it’s a really good one. You’re right — life is too short not to have fun. So why don’t we have fun in what we are doing? Absolutely.  Last question, Adam. I noticed that in your companies, you also have a tradition, which I find very unique, but also very good and remarkable. You start all your meetings with a safety note, or a safety observation, or a safety reflection. Please, tell me about that tradition.

If you rewind back to 2010 to 2012, it was a time when the industry shifted its focus to safety. Up to that point, we did not have customers driving safety requirements. Back then, customers started saying that if your safety record was not at a certain level, you were not permitted to do business with them. That was the right answer. Before that, many businesses managed their own safety, and some put profit ahead of safety. It became driven by the customer, and that took the industry to another level.

In 2010 to 2012, we brought in DuPont Sustainable Solutions to audit our safety culture. They put us on a trajectory that changed the direction of our business, putting safety first and focusing on employee health and well-being. They recognized that leaders could walk onto the shop floor and tell teams to wear safety glasses and earplugs, then get in a car without a seatbelt or go home and work off a ladder unsafely. You have to lead by example. One of their key recommendations was that we needed to put safety ahead of everything. If a meeting includes three or more people, starting with a safety topic gets everyone thinking about the risks around us. Sharing real safety moments, such as potholes on the way into work or trimming trees at home, brings safety to another level. It transformed our business. It gets us thinking about safety before we get into the substance of a meeting. I see our employees bringing safety home as well, which makes their families safer, too.

I have absolutely no doubt that you have not only top standards in safety, but also a great safety culture. What I see too often, Adam, is that people try to impose safety regulations, but they fail to translate them into a true safety culture. And with what you are doing, you really make it part of the culture. And then you have that cultural awareness and safety awareness continuously reinforced with everyone. Congratulations on that — I think this is best in class.

Well, Adam, this was a pleasure to have this exchange with you, and congratulations again for being selected as the Industry Champion. It’s always a pleasure to exchange with great minds and great industry champions. We are all for industrial excellence, and we know how important manufacturing is to make the world move and keep the world moving. Thank you for all you do, and thank you for being a partner in this interview.

Yannick, I’m honored, and I appreciate you interviewing me and spending some time learning about our business. Thank you.