Sequatchie Concrete purchases Cleveland Ready Mix
One of the Chattanooga area’s largest concrete companies just got bigger.
Sequatchie Concrete Service Inc., announced Monday that it had reached an agreement to buy, for an undisclosed amount, Cleveland Ready Mix, which has a cement plant in Cleveland, Tenn., and another in Calhoun, Tenn. and employs close to 30 people.
“This exciting move strengthens our ability to serve our customers along the I-75 corridor,” said Jesse Slaton, the 40-year-old accountant who’s president and co-owner of Sequatchie Concrete. “We look forward to adding their people, experience and history to the Sequatchie brand.”
Sequatchie has more than 20 locations between Decatur, Ala., and Knoxville. Cleveland Ready Mix, which has about two dozen employees, fits “perfectly,” Slaton said, between Sequatchie’s major metropolitan operations of Chattanooga and Knoxville.
The purchase was friendly, said Nicholas Edwards, Sequatchie Concrete Service’s director of sales and marketing.
“It was based on a good, longstanding relationship,” Edwards said.
Sequatchie Concrete Service, Inc. was founded in 1954 by Robert Thomas, and is based in South
Pittsburg, Tenn. Cleveland Ready Mix served customers in Bradley, McMinn, Meigs, Polk and Hamilton counties for more than 50 years under the ownership of the late Claude Simpson.
Simpson had good relationships with Sequatchie’s founder’s sons, Reece Thomas and David Thomas, which paved the way for the eventual combination of the companies, Edwards said. Thomas family members are still shareholders and board members in Sequatchie Concrete Service, Inc., but don’t run its day-to-day operations.
“We are looking to grow within our footprint,” said Slaton, who said he’s “always” willing to buy up competitors.
Sequatchie Concrete Service Inc. manufactures and delivers ready-mixed concrete, aggregates, commercial and residential block, architectural block, segmental retaining wall block, and structural precast products.