A leading independent in ready mixed and aggregate has fine tuned its formula for sustaining growth in the mid-Atlantic market. “The type of concrete or aggregate plant we want to operate favors greenfield development or a major overhaul if a site is of adequate size,” notes Larry Silvi II, president and CEO of Fairless Hills, Pa.-based Silvi Group. “Commercial construction in central New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, and the economies of raw material distribution, demand a more serious strategy than acquiring a small operator, or buying three acres and a $100,000 transit mix plant. To serve commercial and residential accounts in new target areas, we see a 9- to 12-acre central mixed operation located within minutes of a four-lane highway.”

Since 1998, Silvi Group has demonstrated this philosophy with the opening of two greenfield ready mixed plants, Downingtown and Limerick, Pa., each bearing redeployed equipment and staff from smaller sites in markets no longer fitting management's criteria. Located about 35 miles apart, the plants extend into affluent, rapid growth counties north and west of Philadelphia. The newest property, built on an industrial park hillside in Downingtown, is 30 minutes from an existing plant, Oxford, near the southeast Pennsylvania border.

These plants enable Silvi Group to supply large, accelerated slab-on-grade pours (> 200 yd./hour) typical of warehouses and retail stores that continue to dot southeast Pennsylvania's suburban and exurban landscape. On jobs large and small, the company has recently taken a bold step to control costs for its 100-vehicle, all front discharge mixer fleet. “Last summer we instituted for New Jersey customers a flat rate pricing plan instead of short load premiums, then carried it over to Pennsylvania in January,” notes Larry Silvi.

“The flat rate is $180 per truck, regardless of load size. It eliminates the potential for lost truck time and encourages customers to plan pours in sequences that require fewer loads,” says Tim Kurz, senior vice president. Prior to instituting the flat rate, he adds, customers on a pump job, for example, might receive a quote for a 30-yd. order then, upon scheduling, request delivery in five 6-yd. loads.

The $180 charge more accurately covers the trucking costs, Kurz contends, especially considering the premium of operating front discharge vehicles, which Silvi Group introduced to its market in the early 1990s. The flat rate is among the variables run through a software-based cost model developed in house for ready mixed quotes, all of which must be approved by a senior manager. The software calculates an order's projected margin, allowing the manager to quickly give sales staff a nod on a bid, or require a re-working of numbers.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Targeting a specific customer base in higher growth areas hinges on Silvi Group's ability to develop greenfield properties. To contend with new-plant opponents and stringent state and local environmental regulations, the company employs a vice president of environmental and public affairs. In that capacity, Uday Patankar, PE, has overseen zoning and permitting of the company's Downingtown ready mixed plant.

The 10-acre, industrial zoned site allowed construction of a ready mixed plant as a matter of right. Yet Silvi faced stiff opposition from owners of flex space office buildings in the same industrial park. Sensing incompatibility with their businesses, they challenged a zoning application before the township. In addition, the opponents organized to reject the plant proposal before the industrial park landowners' management board. “We gradually overcame opposition to the plant through patient negotiations on the strength of good design and engineering,” Patankar affirms.

Features include a totally enclosed plant with baghouse emission controls, covered conveyors, closed-loop process water handling to achieve zero discharge, profile tucked into the sloping site topography, and landscaping. The 12-yd. Rex unit is capable of producing 300 yards of ready-mix concrete per hour. The plant is currently serviced by 10 Oshkosh mixers, with plans to eventually have a 30-40 truck fleet on site, and a 980G Cat loader for material handling. Future plans also call for a truck maintenance garage.

The Limerick, Downington and Oxford operations define the western border a market area that stretches 100-150 miles inland from the New Jersey shoreline. The new plant and six other Pennsylvania and New Jersey ready mixed sites receive much of their fine aggregate from two sister Sahara Sand properties. The two states have ideal haul and back haul conditions: New Jersey is rich in sand and poor in rock and Pennsylvania vice versa.

Downingtown's final permitting and substantial completion has allowed Patankar to switch his attention back to raw materials. He continues permit work for a hard rock quarry on a 250-acre plot about 25 miles northwest of Philadelphia — well sited to supply Pennsylvania and New Jersey plants. Patankar joined Silvi Group in 2001 to assist in permitting of expanded mining at Sahara Sand's Manahawkin, N.J., flagship operation.

Another project he and colleagues have recently launched is likely one of the first of its kind among concrete and aggregate operators: a Web log, http://saharasand.blogspot.com. Themed the Silvi Community Relations Blog, it offers updates on the company's track record as a good neighbor.