Walker Concrete Nets National Cement Atlanta Market Integration

National Cement Co. parent Vicat has acquired Walker Concrete and Walker Construction Products, Stockbridge, Ga., which serve primarily south-metro Atlanta through 14 ready mixed plants and four retail locations–the latter offering tools, decorative flatwork supplies and concrete landscaping units

Sources: Vicat Group, Paris; CP staff
National Cement Co. parent Vicat has acquired Walker Concrete and Walker Construction Products, Stockbridge, Ga., which serve primarily south-metro Atlanta through 14 ready mixed plants and four retail locations–the latter offering tools, decorative flatwork supplies and concrete landscaping units. The transaction will foster production synergy with the National Cement mill in Ragland, Ala., east of Birmingham. A 2.2 million ton/year facility with additional capacity scheduled to come on line in 2010, Ragland feeds a distribution channel that includes three metro-Atlanta terminals.

Walker Concrete becomes a fourth ready mixed production platform for Encino, Calif.-based National Cement. Its 1.6 million ton/year Lebec, Calif., mill serves 10-plant National Ready Mixed Concrete, a key Los Angeles County operator, and Builders Concrete and Viking Ready Mix, both in Fresno. In Alabama, National Cement operates Birmingham mainstay Kirkpatrick Concrete, plus bolt-on businesses from other state markets. The move into Atlanta extends Alabama-market overlap between National Cement and Georgia’s top guns in ready mixed production, Lafarge North America and Ready Mix USA.