A Terre Haute, Ind., entity established this month, Cheetah Building Products, combines a new, high output concrete masonry plant with an established block production and brick distribution business.

The company has staked its future on a product line extension into architectural concrete masonry and landscaping units, all of which can be molded on a Tiger PS-100 machine with a complete Standley batching system. “We reached a point where we could barely stay ahead of demand. Therefore, we had to decide whether to accomodate the growth by building a new plant or get out of the concrete products business altogether,” says Cheetah General Manager Monte Barton. “The new Tiger plant allows us to look beyond central Indiana and Illinois and gives us a wider range of concrete products to offer the market. In addition, the Standley color system expands the available colors we can integrate into our new and existing product lines.”

A fifth-generation bricklayer who trained through journeyman status, Barton runs the company with assistance from his father, Robert, who owns a local contracting business, H.R. Barton Masonry, which built the 34,000-sq.-ft. building for the new production line.

The company is hiring four sales persons to cover Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky territories. The sales staff will have unit concrete masonry, plus clay brick offerings from Belden, Bowerston, Glen Gery and Sioux City Brick. The proximity of Terre Haute to Interstate 70 affords Cheetah access to much of the Great Lakes region. The company will promote value-added block across its market, while targeting larger areas — Columbus, Indianapolis, Louisville, Chicago, and St. Louis — for paving stone and retaining wall unit sales.

Cheetah Building Products is expanding with an eye to markets that are well served, but not saturated, by a host of multiple-plant operators, Monte Barton admits, adding: “We know the masonry business from both manufacturer and bricklayer perspectives. We feel our experience, combined with the Tiger and Standley equipment, will translate into a far superior product than has been seen in some time.”