Vulcan Materials history

In 1912 he left Vulcan Detinning to join Republic Chemical, taking the company's trade secrets with him and setting off a series of lawsuits.

1916 - The company was purchased by Charles Lincoln Ireland, a banker from Ohio, who sent his sons Glenn, Eugene and Barney to Birmingham to manage the business.

The Irelands opened a new slag processing plant in Ensley in 1918.

Vulcan Detinning and Republic Chemical merged in 1920, after Kern was no longer associated with either company.

Nevertheless, Birmingham Slag was ready when state legislators passed the 1922 Alabama Bond Issue for Good Roads, setting off a boom in road construction.

In 1923 Birmingham Slag formed the Montgomery Gravel Company and began providing sand and gravel for a dam being built in Cherokee Bluffs, Alabama.

Vulcan Materials Company acquires Florida Rock Industries, Inc., which was originally founded in 1929 by Thompson S. Baker.

In 1939 Birmingham Slag signed a contract with the newly formed Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to dredge part of the Tennessee River so a dam and power plant could be built at Watts Bar, thus marking yet another business expansion for the company.

In addition, Charles W. Ireland, the grandson of the Ohio banker, had become president of Birmingham Slag in 1951 and was looking for ways to lessen the inheritance taxes family members faced.

31, 1956, after purchasing the Vulcan Detinning Co. in New Jersey.

Vulcan Materials Company became a publicly traded company with trading beginning on January 2, 1957.

He joined Vulcan in 1958 as executive vice-president and, soon after, became president and chief executive officer.

In 1967 Vulcan purchased Aluminum and Magnesium, Inc., an Ohio-based aluminum recycler.

Vulcan had first looked to Mexico as a potential quarry site to serve the Gulf Coast area of the United States in 1973.

Vulcan also spent ten years in oil and natural gas exploration, forming a joint venture in 1975 with Oklahoma-based Southport Exploration, Inc.

1981 - Sales at the company total $783 million and Vulcan is on the Fortune 500.

1985: Vulcan sells Southport Exploration and exits the natural gas and oil business.

Until 1988 when Vulcan sold its metals division, detinning and aluminum recycling had formed the nucleus of the metals processing business.

Three years later, in 1990, Vulcan surpassed the White's Mines acquisition by paying more than $110 million for the Reed Crushed Stone Company, Inc. and two related companies.

The W.H. Blount, a refitted Panamax-class vessel named for a former chief executive officer and then chairman emeritus of Vulcan Materials, was put into operation in March 1991 to carry limestone from the Mexican quarry.

Entering 1993 the company was encouraged by a recovering economy and by the renewed focus on upgrading and expanding the nation's highways.

A jump in both the construction of residential homes and federal highways pushed the division's earnings up 39 percent to $162 million, offsetting the chemical unit's loss of $7.3 million and bringing Vulcan's overall earnings to $98 million on net sales just shy of $1.3 billion for 1994.

Sklenar was named chairman emeritus in 1997 when James assumed the title of chairman.

Additionally, Vulcan's construction division began to reap the benefits of the federal government's TEA-21, a new highway rebuilding and construction bill passed in 1998, which provided $157 billion over the next six years for the refurbishment and new construction of national highways.

United States Concrete was formed in 1999, with its headquarters in Euless, TX. The deal is valued at $1.3 billion.

By the year 2000, Vulcan had expanded its construction aggregates empire to have facilities in 21 states, the District of Columbia, and Mexico, with 236 operational quarries.

Twenty-four Vulcan quarries in the United States and its Crescent quarry in Mexico won top honors from the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association's About Face Awards in early 2002.

On June 7, 2005, Vulcan completed the sale of its chemicals business, known as Vulcan Chemicals, to Occidental Chemical Corporation.

On February 19, 2007, Vulcan announced that it would buy stone and cement producer Florida Rock Industries for $4.7 billion.

2011 - Vulcan shares downgraded by several investment analysts

In January 2014, Vulcan Materials announced they would be selling their Florida Rock Industry (cement and ready-mixed concrete) plants and equipment to Cementos Argos, of Colombia.