Sources: Essroc Cement Corp., Nazareth, Pa.; CP staff
Essroc closed earlier this month on Crider & Shockey Inc. and Toms Brook Inc., the ready mixed businesses of Winchester, Va.-based Shockey Cos. Company Chairman Don Shockey noted that transaction terms include offers of continued employment to approximately 100 existing Crider & Shockey and Toms Brook employees. He also affirmed that companion construction and precast/prestressed businesses, Howard Shockey & Sons and Shockey Precast Group, are not for sale. A Winchester plant that supplies the Shockey Precast flagship operation and outside ready mixed orders will remain with Shockey Cos.

Crider & Shockey is Essroc Cement's second transaction in ready mixed during the past 12 months, following acquisition of Wheeling, W.Va.-based Arrow Concrete. With operations in its home state, plus Pennsylvania and Ohio, Arrow marked a return to a vertical integration model Essroc abandoned in the U.S. with the mid-1990s unloading of its concrete pipe business. The Arrow and Crider & Shockey investments coincide with major cement production and milling capacity improvements at Essroc's Martinville, Va., and Frederick, Md., sites. In Canada, where it has long-standing integrated ready mixed and cement operations, Essroc recently added to its Ontario platform Cambridge Concrete, outside Toronto.