Growth projections over the next decade have the North Carolina cities of Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem expanding to form a triangular-shaped metropolitan area with population of 1.3 million. As each new building or public works job helps define that pattern, one of the area's main block and ready mixed players hopes to imprint its geometric stamp - an orange diamond - across the map.

RMC Carolina Materials Inc. represents the consolidation of a North Carolina portfolio that Decatur, Ga.-based RMC Industries Corp. has built since 1978. RMC Carolina Materials' centerpiece is a new headquarters office and high output block plant in Colfax, bordering Greensboro. It opened late last year on a 15-acre site formerly occupied by precast/prestressed producer Arnold Stone.

For strategic siting, RMC Carolina Materials could hardly have a more natural plot: The Colfax property lies within minutes of an Interstate 40 interchange and the Interstate 40 & 85 junction. I-40 and I-85 follow two legs of the Greensboro, High Point and Winson-Salem metro triangle.

Production-wise, Colfax is a natural quality control "work in progress" for RMC Carolina Materials President C. Tom Long, an aerospace engineer by training. "Concrete block producers tend to operate with a cull rate goal of 1 percent," he says. "I tell our staff at Colfax and other plants that in an aerospace assembly, 1 percent can mean up to 4,000 parts. We're dealing with a much simpler product and can strive for 0 percent cull."

Market pull With rich natural deposits, North Carolina is among the largest clay brick producing and consuming states. Brick demand is fueled by competitive prices, owing to low transportation costs, and home and building owners set on traditional architectural styles. Despite current backlogs and the traditional support mechanism clay brick provides concrete masonry, Tom Long notes, North Carolina remains a very competitive block market.

RMC Carolina Materials' new operation affords low cost, volume output in primarily gray product. Equipped with a Besser Superpac six-at-a-time machine, it replaces an old Carolina Quality Block Greensboro plant that ran two Besser V3Rs. Joining Carolina Quality under the RMC Carolina Materials banner are Piedmont-Dixie and Triad Masonry, with a combined 18 block, ready mixed and building materials operations.

Although truck graphics will be changed gradually, most of RMC Industries' North Carolina businesses are being brought under the new entity to be based at Colfax. The move follows a similar measure RMC Industries took with its northern California cement, aggregate, ready mixed and asphalt franchise, formerly RMC Lonestar, now RMC Pacific Materials.

The Colfax property has ample space for sales and administrative staff previously based in Greensboro, along with showroom areas for value-added concrete and clay masonry units, plus hand and power tools, mortar mixers, and related equipment.