Boral Construction Materials Rides Into Oklahoma City

Sydney-based Boral Ltd. closed last month on the assets of Oklahoma City’s Schwarz Ready Mix and Davis Arbuckle Material, with combined annual concrete

CP STAFF

Sydney-based Boral Ltd. closed last month on the assets of Oklahoma City’s Schwarz Ready Mix and Davis Arbuckle Material, with combined annual concrete and aggregate production of 750,000 yd. and 1.6 million tons. The $80 million deal includes 18 batch plants, 160 mixers and tankers, and five sand deposits, plus a Davis, Okla., limestone quarry. The aggregate reserves represent 30-plus years based on current production.

The Schwarz properties position Boral Construction Materials as the number two ready mixed producer in Oklahoma City. These investments expand our construction material presence and create an excellent market platform, notes Emery Severin, president of Boral USA in Atlanta. The company will realize operational and back-office efficiencies by integrating the Oklahoma properties with existing Colorado ready mixed, block and aggregate businesses, he adds. The latter stem from the fall 2004 acquisition of Ready Mixed Concrete Co. and Owens Brothers; they spawned Boral Construction Materials, joining Boral USA’s fly ash and clay brick businesses.

The Schwarz transaction continues a gradual consolidation of Oklahoma ready mixed producers. In April 2006, GCC of Mexico entered the state through Tulsa-based MidCo Group, with 30 Mid-Continent Concrete plants in northeastern Oklahoma and northwestern Arkansas. Two years prior, the state’s top gun in concrete, Dolese Bros. of Oklahoma City, picked up 17 ready mixed plants from Joe Brown Co., serving southern Oklahoma. In early 2000, Houston-based U.S. Concrete Inc. acquired three-plant Duncan operator, Atlas Concrete Co., as a bolt-on to its Dallas-Ft. Worth business.