Aggregate production and ready mixed concrete were logical targets for a Sylvania, Ohio, partnership looking at opportunities beyond a longtime family trucking business. But after The Stansley Group built a loyal customer following for materials production and delivery services, owners figured it was time to look downstream.

Integrated Concrete Products, the company's newest franchise, begins its second year this month, producing conventional, split-face and colored block, plus more recently added Rockwood segmental retaining wall units. Although the producer is positioned to serve the Ohio-Indiana Turnpike (Interstate 80) and Detroit-Toledo (Interstate 75) corridors, a local opportunity compelled investment in a four-at-a-time block machine versus smaller capacity equipment more typical of an operator in a medium-sized population center.

“The City of Toledo passed a referendum to support a 10-year construction plan calling for six new schools a year. This creates a strong base for concrete masonry in northwestern Ohio,” notes Scott Stansley, who along with three brothers and a brother-in-law run the Stansley Group.

The $6 million block operation joins established businesses Integrated Resources (five northwestern Ohio ready mixed plants); Stansley Mineral Resources (two limestone quarries, three sand and gravel pits, Ohio and Michigan); and, Sylvester Material Co. (100-plus dump, tanker fleet). Integrated Concrete occupies eight acres of a 20-acre property the Stansleys first set up for trucking and ready mixed.

The 30,000-sq.-ft. plant is equipped with a Besser Ultrapac II machine and an aggregate bin comprised of four 100-ton compartments, plus Standley coloring system. The configuration translates to an optimal production level of 10 million block annually. The first year of operation, coinciding with a sizable drop in commercial construction around the Great Lakes states, has seen the plant march a third of the way toward that output level. Assisting Scott Stansley in the plant launch have been his niece, Kristin Stansley, serving as manager; and Mark Chapman, machine operator and production scheduler.

TWIN SHAFT SHIFT

At the heart of the batch plant is a Simen MSO2500 twin shaft mixer — the Stansley Group's second such unit. The first unit, a 6-yd. model installed as a retrofit on a highway plant, is engaged in a 175,000-yd. contract tied to one of the largest bridges under construction in North America — the Maumee River Crossing in downtown Toledo (Concrete Products, “Cable ready,” April 2003). Integrated Resources landed the Ohio Department of Transportation contract after demonstrating a capacity to meet quality control guidelines on a job with primarily slag cement/Type I portland mix designs.

Participation in Maumee River Crossing is a strong validation for Integrated Resources. Scott Stansley and his family started the business a decade ago and have grown it into five plants running 35 mixer trucks and producing in excess of 225,000 yd. annually. Like Integrated Concrete Products, Resources has been built by greenfield plant development. That strategy appears to be paying off in a market which, since 1980, has seen a handful of failed mergers between independent operators trying to cope with overcapacity.

Success in bulk material hauling, and subsequently crushed limestone and sand & gravel production, have given Stansley Group a business model to expand into ready mixed and concrete masonry. “We have a niche with bigger contractors, and block is a natural fit for our plan to vertically integrate,” concludes Scott Stansley. “We are becoming the low-cost provider by packaging trucking services and stone, sand, ready mixed and block product.”