The 2005 chairman of the National Precast Concrete Association (NPCA) wants to further position the organization as the industry's “go-to” group. “My biggest single goal for the association in 2005 is that I would like to see us continue to develop as the ‘go-to’ association for the manufactured concrete products industry,” says Joan Blecha, president of Hanson Pipe & Products Southeast. Blecha assumes the NPCA chair on Feb. 14.

“I want the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) looking to us for help or alliances in developing programs for workplace safety,” Blecha tells Concrete Products. “I'd like to see the road builder associations and state highway administrations looking to us to help develop guidelines and answer questions regarding their projects. I want NPCA to be recognized as an indispensable partner in the manufactured concrete products industry.”

NPCA'S DIVERSE STAKEHOLDERS

That NPCA represents so many different stakeholders among such a diversity of concrete products is a challenge to Blecha and the staff, but that's the nature of the beast, she says. “The thing that's different about NPCA is that so many different products are produced by our members,” Blecha observes. “We're not as specific as manholes, septic tanks or pipe. Our members produce all of those things. So when we are looking to satisfy our members' needs, we have to be able to address the concrete products industry as a whole, rather than just one product line. That makes focusing on a single issue more difficult.”

Instead, NPCA looks at the big picture. “What we have to do is focus on the health of the industry and the health of the member companies within the industry,” she affirms. “We have to focus on education and expectations and opportunities. I don't want to leave the office with people asking ‘What's in it for me?’ in terms of the association.”

Blecha envisions NPCA recognizing opportunities for members in new product development and getting members' products out in front of specifiers. “One of our two magazines, Precast Solutions, directed to engineers and specifiers highlights a variety of precast projects,” she reports. The association's flagship publication, MC Magazine, reaches industry professionals throughout North America. Both magazines go to regulators and educators.

And it's all geared toward increasing market share and optimizing sales for producer members. “At the end of the day,” Blecha notes, “if a manufactured concrete product did not go in the ground — for example, if a competing construction material was used — none of us in the industry has made any money.”

NPCA REORGANIZATION

In 2004, NPCA reorganized both internally among its committees and externally in its presentation to the industry. In the latter case, NPCA finished a “branding” process to change the association's public face and graphics. The new look and texture follow the NPCA board of directors' approval of a plan to give the association a coordinated identity.

The NPCA brand includes a new logo, redesigned publications, a new web site look, and a series of advertisements that promote the quality, value and permanence of precast. Such branding is intended to create a strategic and distinctive NPCA identity. Every communication is thereby given a coordinated look that will project an image of the association as a modern, forward-thinking entity.

“NPCA members are innovative, entrepreneurial businesses, and we want to reflect that to specifiers, regulators and potential customers,” says Ty Gable, NPCA president. “We also want to let the industry know that NPCA members are the best informed, most quality-conscious producers around. We'll be pushing NPCA as the mark of quality in the precast industry.”

New logos are available for brochures, advertisements and web sites of member companies. A new plant certification stencil also has been developed, along with vehicle stickers and a variety of other promotional pieces.

Internally, product sections were overhauled and new committees assigned to specific products as opposed to general markets (see NPCA At-A-Glance sidebar). “We formed product-specific committees such as ‘Manholes’ and ‘Septic Tanks’ rather than ‘Sanitary and Stormwater,’” Joan Blecha tells Concrete Products. “Those committees will help producers within our association spend more time in the area of products they manufacture to develop or modify ASTM specs or work with health departments or highway administrations. It will give the organization some focus for individual producer members.”

Previously, a member might attend an hour-long section meeting only to discover that 10 minutes of it pertained to his or her specialty. “We've eliminated the sections and created committees that are much more targeted,” Blecha notes. “The Septic Tank Committee will be working specifically with issues relevant to septic tanks, whereas in the past they had been part of the water and wastewater section.”

FAST TRACK TO PREFERRED FUTURE

The reorganization has been thorough and challenging. “We have looked on our reorganization as the ‘Preferred Future’ of our precast association,” Blecha affirms. “It's taken a lot of courage on the part of board and the members to walk away from a structure that we've had for 40 years. We've done it to raise the level of the association after the tremendous growth of the last four decades.”

What's even more remarkable is that the overhaul was accomplished at blinding-fast speed in less than a year's time. “The board adopted the reorganization in May 2004, and the rollout of the new committees was developed during our Industry Outlook Conference in California in October,” Blecha recalls. The new committees will begin functioning at NPCA's February convention.

In addition, staff changes were implemented. Two new engineers were hired to beef up technical support for the new committees. “With all the products under our umbrella, we were spread thin,” Blecha reports. “The additional engineering resources will help, and we've hired another communications person.”

MAINTAINING QUALITY, PROMOTING CERTIFICATION

In 2005, Blecha will continue to emphasize NPCA Immediate Past Chairman Vernon Wehrung's commitment to enhancing product quality as a way of building market share in the competitive concrete products arena. One means to that end is maintaining the rigorous plant certification program that NPCA administers.

“The plant certification program that we have been working on for the past 18 months has been tremendously successful,” Blecha affirms. “The state regulatory agencies have begun to recognize the need for outside help, because all are experiencing funding cuts and are being asked to do more with fewer resources. The certification program gives them a well-respected, independent outside authority that will enter a plant and certify that a plant is producing quality products, meets ASTM specs or other performance testing specs, no matter what the product is.

“Timing of the program on the part of the association could not have been better, especially in view of state DOTs experiencing budget cuts while having to maintain the same quality. Our message is a good one, and is well-received by the authorities.”

By fall of 2005, NPCA anticipates that 26 states will be on board with the association's plant certification program, according to Blecha. Promotion is executed by a staff member whose sole responsibility is the certification program. “Essentially, the message we are getting out to the DOTs in 2005 is that we are making production of quality products the priority,” Blecha emphasizes. “We're making it tougher on ourselves by having states require certification. That says a lot about the nature of our members and how they care about the industry.”

From the producer members' point of view, plant certification is a good business decision, she contends. “With certification, we are putting expectations on ourselves relative to quality. Quality ends up being a good way to do business. It's a credit to the members that they were willing to recognize the need for quality and commit themselves to a strenuous program to measure achievement.”

And the quest for quality among governments is self-perpetuating: when a state DOT adopts plant self-certification as a requirement, local governments tend to follow, increasing an exclusive market for a certified producer.

“With so many physical requirements, the easiest thing for a municipality to do is to state it wants product per DOT specs,” Blecha tells Concrete Products. “It takes them off the hook in terms of having to have the individual resources to research the program, because the state agency already has done that. And, it applies to the private sector as well. We are seeing increasing numbers of plans from engineers who have specified that a product come from an NPCA-certified plant.”

Plant certification is just one avenue to realizing NPCA aspirations to further support industry players. Besides bolstering the reputation of precast products, the certification program exerts a positive effect on quality development in the industry as a whole. That in conjunction with building alliances, product diversity, improved marketing methods, the recent reorganization and branding, and the vision of a “preferred future” paves the way for NPCA to be an indispensable partner in the manufactured concrete products industry.

NATIONAL PRECAST CONCRETE ASSOCIATION
At-A-Glance

The National Precast Concrete Association represents manufacturers of plant-produced concrete products and the suppliers to the industry. Founded in 1965 with 75 members, today NPCA represents more than 900 companies worldwide.

NPCA is dedicated to expanding the use of quality precast products through providing industry leadership in tackling challenges and leveraging opportunities, i.e., supporting members' success in ways that are consistent with the public interest. To this end, NPCA develops educational seminars; sponsors the annual MCPX trade show; publishes industry newsletters as well as two magazines targeted to the manufactured concrete products industry and specifiers, plus technical/sales literature; and, operates a technical services “hotline.”

The association provides technical and product information through product committees. In 2004, NPCA changed its product section structure from general multi-product committees to specific single-product committees in two categories, Aboveground and Underground.

The Underground division includes individual committees for grease interceptors, manholes, box culverts, stormwater treatment, septic tanks, pipe, and utility vaults. Comprising the Aboveground division are committees for buildings, retaining and sound walls, and bridges.

NPCA President Ty Gable has led the association for more than 10 years. Under his watch, NPCA has built a team of technical experts; grown the NPCA Plant Certification Program to 200 plants; cultivated a technical library, significantly increasing its book and video offerings; and, coordinated four trade associations to create the Manufactured Concrete Products Exposition, the largest trade show specifically for the manufactured concrete products industry.

The sum total of these initiatives creates a package that will help Joan Blecha this year realize her goal of becoming the “go-to” association for the manufactured concrete products industry.

NPCA may be reached at its headquarters, 10333 N. Meridian St., Suite 272, Indianapolis, Ind., 46290, tel.: 317/571-9500 or 800/366-7731; fax: 317/571-0041; e-mail: npca@precast.org. Visit NPCA's newly revised web site at www.precast.org

CHAIRPERSONS

2005

JOAN BLECHA
President
Hanson Pipe & Products Southeast
Green Cove Springs, Florida

IMMEDIATE PAST CHAIRMAN

VERNON WEHRUNG
President
Modern Precast Concrete
Ottsville, Pennsylvania

CHAIRMAN ELECT (2006)

DAN BARBOUR
Vice President
Barbour Concrete Co.
Independence, Missouri

HANSON PIPE & PRODUCTS SOUTHEAST
At-A-Glance

Hanson Pipe & Products Southeast constitutes one of four regional U.S. divisions of Hanson Pipe & Products Inc., said by company officials to be the largest producer of concrete pipe and precast products in North America. The entire enterprise includes more than 90 operations in 20 U.S. states and Ontario.

With headquarters in Green Cove Springs, Fla., Hanson Pipe & Products Southeast manufactures or markets reinforced circular, elliptical and arch concrete pipe, box culverts, modular bridges, manholes, drainage and utility structures, wet wells, CDS brand storm water quality systems, protective linings, welded steel pipe, the HansonArch Bridge System, and precast vaults. The Southeast Region operates 23 plants in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Hanson Pipe & Products, Inc., traces its roots to the Gifford-Hill Pipe Co., founded in 1931. By 1997, the firm had expanded to 12 plants located in Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma and Louisiana. In 1997, Gifford-Hill merged with Concrete Pipe & Products Co., Inc. A producer since 1923, CP&P operated plants in Virginia, Maryland, Texas and California.

The company again expanded its operations in 1998 through two major acquisitions. North Star Concrete and Spancrete Midwest Co. were purchased from the Condux Corp. Manufacturing facilities were thereby gained in Minnesota, South Dakota and Ohio.

In January 1999, Gifford-Hill became Hanson Pipe & Products, Inc., thereby strengthening company identity in the U.S. and abroad, while unifying pipe and precast operations with the Hanson organization.

Hanson Pipe & Products acquired three new firms in 1999. The single Canadian entity among those purchased was LOC PIPE, established in Whitby, Ont., near Toronto in 1974. Producing pipe and other precast products, plus ribbed PVC pipe for sewers and storm drainage, the ISO 9002-certified plant operates as Hanson Pipe & Products Canada.

Hanson increased its structural and architectural precast capabilities with the addition of United Spancrete Products Corp. Now operating as Hanson Pacific Spancrete, the precast operations include plants in Irwindale and Chula Vista, Calif., that serve the dynamic Los Angeles and San Diego markets.

The addition of Superior Products Co. strengthened Hanson's presence in the North Central and Eastern U.S. regions. The Superior plant in Macedonia, Ohio, produces concrete pipe and precast products. The Pottstown, Pa., plant produces an array of precast concrete items; its specialty is noise barriers for highway construction.

In 2000, Hanson solidified its North Central operations through acquisition of Ohio's Cincinnati Concrete Pipe and Indiana's Milan Concrete Products. At the same time, Joelson-Taylor joined the Hanson family, adding eight pipe and precast plants throughout Florida and a modern precast facility in Charleston, S.C. Further, Hanson entered the Pacific Northwest market through acquisition of PIPE, Inc., with pipe and precast operations in Portland and Salem, Ore., and Tacoma, Wash.

In 2001, the purchase of Centennial Concrete Pipe, the major pipe and precast producer in Ontario with plants in Ottawa, Cambridge and Windsor, expanded Hanson's Canadian presence.

Subsequently, Choctaw, Inc. joined Hanson in 2002, bringing 17 facilities in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Hanson's latest expansion occurred with the purchase of Rinker facilities in Tualatin, Ore., and Everett, Wash.