Texas Power Brokers: Holt siblings, now in control of family company, setting off on own path

Since they were children,Peter J. Holt and Corinna Holt Richter knew they would take over the family business — their name has been intertwined with heavy construction equipment for five generations.

Their great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Holt, developed and patented the first successful track-type tractor, a vehicle that runs on tracks instead of wheels, in 1904. It became known as the Caterpillar.

The Holt family sold off the manufacturing business in the 1920s, but kept a hand in the dealership.

Today, San Antonio-based Holt Cat runs the largest Caterpillar dealership network in the U.S., employing more than 2,200 people in its Texas operations. The Holt family also owns the San Antonio Spurs.

At the beginning of January, siblings Holt, 31, and Richter, 33, each took a controlling share of Holt Cat from their father, Peter M. Holt.

Peter J. Holt, 31, is now CEO and general manager. Richter, 33, is president and chief administrative officer. They may be young, but they’ve had to navigate major economic shifts.

The siblings joined Holt Cat in 2011 when business was brisk and it was difficult to meet customer demand. That all came grinding to a halt when oil prices cratered three years later, plummeting from $107 a barrel in June 2014 to $26 a barrel in February 2016.

They navigated the oil bust. They also considered a potential headquarters change to the Dallas area, but decided to keep the company in San Antonio.

The siblings say they’re surrounded by an experienced team of executives and advisers — and both want to leave their mark on the family business.

Corinna graduated from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor’s degree in art history in 2007 while Peter finished his bachelor’s degree in business at the University of the Incarnate Word in business in 2010.

The San Antonio Express-News recently sat down with Holt and Richter to discuss their new roles. Here’s an edited transcript of the interview.

Q: How has the structure of Holt Cat changed now that you both are in control of it?

Richter: The structure is pretty much the same — I think all of the work we did to establish relationships with our teams and the teamwork we’ve done and the collaboration we’ve done has allowed us to make the transition really smooth. We still have the direct feedback, we still ask for it, and we still expect that we’re going to get clear criticism even when we’re overstepping or doing something that our team thinks is not the right move.

Holt: One of the beauties of this transition was that we made a lot of steps before the big steps. It wasn’t a surprise to anybody and we didn’t come in the next day with some big portfolio of changes that we wanted to do. I think that was helpful for both us and our teams and the organization. I’d add that now that I’m in this position, and there’s maybe less support from the top down for me, I need to find some folks in the business community here locally and maybe even outside of local to develop good peer relationships with, to bounce ideas off or to get feedback. I’m in the process of doing that and we’re in the process of finding some of those deeper connections that maybe we can utilize some best practices that are not necessarily insular.

Q: The Holt name is one that is all over the state on your dealerships. How is your family’s history in Texas opening up doors, both in the business and political worlds?

Holt: We want to leverage the past and the legacy that our parents and grandparents helped establish. At the same time we’re our own individuals and we’ve got our own thoughts. What we’re trying to do now is really take a step back and maybe not say no to people asking us questions or for areas of engagement, but say we really need to get a lay of the land and develop what our philosophies and our thoughts and our goals are so that we can leave a legacy that’s our own, that builds off the past but at the same time is our own. I think the time we are in now is one of a learning versus a doing.

Richter: I would say the Holt name has absolutely opened doors for us and for that we are so blessed. We understand the sense of responsibility we have with that and we see ourselves as stewards of this business and of that Holt legacy. Like Peter said, we are also looking to make our own personal, individual marks on that. I have had moments where I’ve maybe gotten ahead of myself and made a decision that then I needed to reflect on and say, “It’s not the right time … I need to take a lay of the land and learn” and be in the “learn now” mode.

Q: President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress passed a major tax reform bill and the end of 2017, and earlier last year the Texas Legislature conducted its 85th legislative session. What are you looking for in the immediate future?

Richter: We’re hopeful that the tax reform and the new tax bill will allow for us and all businesses to be able to retain capital that they can then reinvest for the benefit of the business and their employees and their customers. I think some of it remains to be seen. I don’t feel super qualified to talk about it at this point.

Holt: We think 2018 and early 2019 will be strong economic years. We have a belief here that Main Street usually beats out Wall Street and usually beats out D.C. So the marketplace and the marketplace dynamics are really what we need to focus on, and 2018 is looking to be a strong year. Yes, some of the things you mentioned contribute or affect that but at the same time, people want to build roads and drive their cars to work and they want their lights to turn on when they flip the switch. We’re lucky enough that our products and services go to build that world.

The big thing that we’re hopeful for next year is a bigger TxDOT letting year. We’ve had two consecutive legislative sessions in Texas where there’s been voter-approved earmarked dollars for our highway system and our road system here in Texas, and yet the actual letting of those projects and of that money hasn’t been a good enough ratio to what the budgets have been approved. We’re hopeful with the new commissioner J. Bruce Bugg, Jr. and emphasis from the state government, and local governments, and the public who wants new roads and road maintenance, that 2018 and 2019 will be strong years for public road development and maintenance.

Q: With you both in your 30s you have potentially decades of leadership ahead of you at Holt Cat. What does that future look like?

Holt: We want to bring in a legacy of innovation into the organization. We really think that our father’s legacy was culture and creating a values-based leadership program that really defines who we are and kind of our soul. We want to be a company that really values innovation and legendary customer service. And I think those two things, in our changing world and changing economy with technology and big data, we’re going to have to weave those two things together.

Richter: It really is to maintain the culture and steward the culture we’ve been given, and also to grow it and put our mark on it. That will come through innovation and customer service and being the best we can be in that sense.

Q: Do you envision Holt Cat growing?

Holt: We’re a company that absolutely wants to grow. We can’t do that artificially, that has to come from markets that want us there and want our type of business there, so we’ll look for that to be as much of an organic growth as possible. I think the best way to do that is to do really well where we are. And so there’s a lot of opportunity to grow our business in our current markets. We want to focus on that so that if new opportunities do arise, we’re easily positioned to go after those.

Richter: I would say maybe we don’t look at growth geographically always, but we are looking at it creatively and always open to the opportunity to grow.

Q: What worries you when you look to the future?

Richter: I think there a lot of things out there that could be worrisome, but I think echoing what Peter was saying earlier, if we focus on our core and what we do well, we think we’ll be positioned to ride those waves. You can’t think too much about the future — you can plan for it, but not worry too much, because what’s the point? It could or couldn’t happen.

Holt: I cannot claim to be a futurist — I don’t have something that I think will negatively affect us in the short term that I think is there. Obviously there are trends that are concerning, whether that’s global political issues or climate change issues or changes in energy sources that we’re moving through. I think what we can control is our philosophy on how we look at those things, and we need to both look at disruption from a formal way and an informal way.

From a formal way, we’ve created Holt Ventures, which is a venture arm that looks at what the disruptive technologies out there are. These are the startups that have new technologies that are looking to replace how we dig holes and replace how we build roads or pave roads or improve those. Can we be on the front end of those versus being on the reactive end of those? And then kind on the informal way, we need to continue to hire and grow our people that are focused on innovation and are okay with talking about disruption from a welcoming standpoint versus a fear-based standpoint.