THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, March 2, 1996 TAG: 9603020274
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines
The Norfolk-based company that helped build the Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel, Harbor Park and dozens of other high-profile construction projects in the Southeast is getting bigger.
Tarmac America Inc. will grow by nearly 40 percent thanks to a major asset swap by its British parent company.
Tarmac America provides cement, concrete products and aggregates, or crushed stone and sand, to the construction industry throughout the Southeast.
The deal, announced in November, closed Friday. It involved a swap between two major British construction companies, Tarmac PLC and George Wimpey PLC. Tarmac gave George Wimpey its home-building business and got Wimpey's minerals and construction business in return.
George Wimpey has sizeable North American operations that Tarmac America will now take over, including eight stone quarries, two lime plants, 10 aggregate depots and 10 asphalt plants.
Most of Wimpey's U.S. operations are in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. Five quarries and five asphalt plants are in Ontario, Canada.
``While it's big for Tarmac America, the American piece is a small part of the entire transaction,'' said John D. Carr, Tarmac America's president and chief executive.
Carr said he really hasn't sorted out the impact of the swap on Tarmac America's headquarters on Azalea Garden Road, where the company employs 80 people. He expects some impact as back-office operations are moved from Wimpey's U.S. base in Annville, Pa.
With about 2,100 employees, Tarmac America has cement depots, concrete product plants, aggregate depots and ready-mix plants in Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. It's also half-owner of Virginia's only cement mill in Roanoke.
It has 379 employees at facilities throughout Hampton Roads, including a cement terminal on the Elizabeth River in Norfolk and an adjacent concrete pipe and block plant. It also has several plants in the region that make bags of ready-mix concrete for consumer use.
The addition of Wimpey will boost Tarmac America's annual sales by about $150 million to $600 million, Carr said.
Wimpey employs about 960 people at peak operation in North America, Carr said. Wimpey's employment is seasonal, however. Most of its Canadian operations shut down in the winter, Carr said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel
Harbor Park in Norfolk
by CNB