ASTE

Astec Industries, Inc.

A maker of heavy equipment for building roads and processing materials, Astec designs asphalt and concrete plants, road-construction machinery, and crushers, screeners, and washers used by contractors, government agencies, miners, and recyclers. It was founded in 1972 in Chattanooga when engineer Dr. J. Don Brock and four friends, upset that their employer planned to move its asphalt operations away, sketched a business plan around a kitchen table. Its name is a mash-up of "asphalt technology," and those asphalt plants can run on warm-mix systems and recycled material.