Five utility-precast plants that Orlando-based Hughes Supply had acquired during the mid- to late-1990s have been sold to Hanson Pipe & Products, Dallas.
CP STAFF
Five utility-precast plants that Orlando-based Hughes Supply had acquired during the mid- to late-1990s have been sold to Hanson Pipe & Products, Dallas. Details of the transaction are forthcoming from Hanson Pipe, whose parent company, London-based Hanson Plc, opened the year with three U.S. and U.K. transactions (PaverModule, Civil and Marine Ltd., Material Service Corp.) valued in excess of $800 million. The Hughes deal includes plants in Texas, Hanson Pipe’s home base, and Alabama and Georgia, states it entered last year through acquisition of Lehigh Cement’s Sherman Pipe properties.
The current deal was consummated prior to Hughes’ March 31 takeover by The Home Depot. The latter issued a $3.4 billion bid for Hughes in January, with plans to integrate the distribution giant into The Home Depot Supply.
The takeover set up an unlikely scenario for the buyer, having little interest in precast production assets. However, Hughes has brought The Home Depot Supply a sizable Building Materials business. It includes a deep concrete and masonry construction supply offering, with distribution through 27 branches in five Southeast states, plus one wire mesh and seven rebar fabrication shops. With limited manufacturing processes, the reinforcing steel shops tend to parallel established Home Depot Supply businesses such as Georgia-based Williams Bros. Lumber Co., which has three truss and five millwork plants. (Prior to its late-1980s spinoff by Blue Circle America, Williams Bros. Lumber was a sister business to Atlanta’s leader in concrete, aggregates and cement Û now an anchor holding of Lafarge NA.)