Alliance Concrete Sustains Gcc’s Heartland Thrust

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, S.A.B. de C.V. closed in mid-January on Alliance Concrete Inc., based in northwest Iowa, serving it and nearby markets in

CP STAFF

Grupo Cementos de Chihuahua, S.A.B. de C.V. closed in mid-January on Alliance Concrete Inc., based in northwest Iowa, serving it and nearby markets in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The transaction includes a fleet of 123 mixers and 73 dump and tanker trucks, as well as 23 ready mixed plants that reported 2007 shipments of about $52 million.

Alliance is the region’s leader in ready mixed and was formed in 2005 from the merger of Joe’s Ready Mix and Russell’s Ready Mix. It affords GCC with what company officials note is access to a well-defined and consolidated market enjoying significant economic growth Û within a region adjacent to existing GCC plants and terminals.

Alliance Concrete provides an important platform for growth in the South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska region, said GCC’s Manuel Mil∑n, chief executive officer. This transaction strengthens our position in the markets where we participate and generates value for our shareholders.

The deal follows platform transactions that position GCC along a central-U.S. axis. The company began staking a claim downstream of its GCC Dacotah Cement business in early 2006, acquiring the South Dakota and Minnesota assets of Consolidated Ready Mix, Henrich and Sons, Huron Steel Structures, and B&B Concrete. Later that year, it added key Oklahoma independent Mid-Continent Concrete. Concurrent with the Alliance Concrete deal, GCC is priming a 1 million-ton/year mill in Pueblo, Colo. GCC of America recently relocated its headquarters to Denver from El Paso.