From its simple beginnings on Sept. 1, 1951, Texas Industries, Inc. (TXI) has maintained a steady growth pattern. Under the leadership of Ralph Rogers, TXI went from being an independent with four lightweight aggregate plants and five product plants in Texas and Louisiana to the last U.S.-based New York Stock Exchange company deriving a majority of its revenue from cement, concrete and aggregates.

By 1952, the company had added seven more products plants, which produced concrete pipe and concrete masonry units as well as metal culvert pipe and ready mix concrete. Within another year, TXI and its subsidiaries were operating 28 plants in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas. By 1956, through an aggressive campaign of acquiring a variety of construction materials producers and rebuilding its existing plants to increase capacity, the company had increased its ranks 50 percent to about 1,350 employees.

As TXI continued to expand its concrete products business during the 1950s, the company was confronted with problem of cement supply. The solution was a major turning point for Texas Industries and the U.S. cement industry. In August 1959, TXI built its first cement plant in Midlothian, Texas, and made itself one of the first concrete companies to resort to vertical integration and become a major cement player. By the end of 1960, TXI-owned companies were involved in every step of the process of making concrete — from raw materials production to the finished product. The company was using about 60 percent of its own product, while the remainder was sold to outside users.

The most important event in TXI's second decade was management's decision to take the company public, which occurred in June 1964. Toward the end of the 1960s, TXI had established seven cement terminals in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Mississippi; and in 1967, the Midlothian facility added a third kiln, making it the largest cement plant in Texas. Also that year, the company introduced three newly developed products: precast concrete stadiums, concrete channels and thick sheets of marble and granite-clad precast.

TXI's third decade began with Bob Rogers, son of the company's founder, assuming the presidency. In 1972, the Midlothian plant added a fourth kiln, increasing its capacity to 1.2 million tons per year and making it the largest cement plant in the Southwest. The following year, TXI began building a new cement plant in Artesia, Miss., which had the distinction of being constructed in the shortest amount of time of any cement plant in the United States since World War II. By 1975, TXI had approximately 3,000 employees.

Near the end of the 1970s, the company began construction of its Hunter cement plant near New Braunfels, Texas, giving TXI the largest cement capabilities in the Gulf States. The first year of the 1980s was challenging for TXI. Cement consumption dropped 11 percent, but the company managed to weather weak market demand because it had maintained its position as a low-cost producer. In 1982, the Hunter plant reached full capacity at a time when many cement companies were struggling to operate at 50 percent of their potential.

TXI had long been a leader in protecting the environment, and the 1990s began with an emphasis on recycling fuel and water at its operations. In 1997, TXI introduced CemStar, a product that combines slag from steelmaking with the cement manufacturing process to make more cement. In December 1998, TXI purchased Riverside Cement Co. in California, placing the company squarely in Texas and California — the two largest cement markets in the country.

Today, TXI's current annual production capacity is slightly more than 5 million tons of cement annually at four plants, making it the fourth largest producer of cement in the United States and the second-largest U.S.-based cement company. TXI also manufactures 4.3 million yd. of ready mix concrete per year across 48 operations, with a total fleet size of 600 trucks. The company produces about 22.5 million tons per year of aggregate materials and is currently building an additional crushed stone plant that will add another 1 million tons to its annual production. Revenues from these three markets will account for 54 percent of the company's $1.2 billion in 2001 revenue. In addition, TXI is the largest producer of expanded clay and shale in the United States, with five plants producing 1.7 million yd. per year.