Fred Weber Inc. Transformed Its Business Dynamic And Is Finding New Success On Multiple Levels.
By Mark S. Kuhar
Anchored to a proud 96-year history, Fred Weber Inc. (FWI) is a different company now than what it was years ago – but in very important ways, it remains the same. The St. Louis-based company is writing the next chapter in a long and successful story.
The company evolved from humble beginnings. At the dawn of the 20th century, Fred Weber Sr. bought his first piece of mechanized equipment: a solid-tire, 5-ton dumpster truck. Combining talented people and the right tools, his company began to grow.
After the death of his father, Fred Weber Jr. faced tough trials and competition in order to expand the company. He constantly pushed the company to be the best in all its endeavors, keeping one of his goals always in mind: “Get the mostest with the leastest.”
Starting with the quarrying operations, then developing the asphalt and sand operations and others, Fred Jr. pushed each area to make it the best producer with the lowest possible cost. He was also responsible for making materials a major part of the company.
In 1974, John Weber bought the company from Fred Weber Jr. and became president and chairman of the board. In 1986, John decided it was in the best interest of his family to sell the assets of the company. Prior to the sale, a management group came together to propose a sale of the company to the employees instead of an outside entity, forming an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP.)
In 1988, the company celebrated its 60th anniversary, and headquarters moved to its current location in Maryland Heights, Mo.
In the 2000s, FWI made big changes. It:
- Formed Ozark Constructors LLC JV.
- Became 100% ESOP-owned and Doug Weible became CEO and chairman of the board.
- Purchased Beco Pipe Co., forming FWI Reinforced Concrete.
- Divested its interest in the heavy highway construction company.
- Completed asset sales of the St. Louis-based aggregate and asphalt locations and purchased General Drilling and Kienstra Precast to accompany its new focused contract mining business.
Today, FWI provides drilling, mining and crushing services – and more – all over the country, including Colorado, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas. Its customers include many of the nation’s top aggregates producers.
Portable Crushing
FWI’s most recent equipment purchase is a state-of-the-art Superior Industries portable crushing spread. The Superior portable plant is crushing 4 million tons of granite for a dam project near Loveland, Colo.
“We’ve been running it for more than two years now,” said Mark Denton, vice president. “The plant consists of a Liberty 3055 jaw crusher plant with an Intrepid 5420 vibrating grizzly feeder, a Patriot P400 cone crusher and a Valor 2160B Vertical Shaft Impactor. Gradation is managed with two Guardian 8203 horizontal screens, a Guardian 6202 horizontal screen and sump wash plant, a Fusion Guardian 8203 horizontal screen wash plant and an Aggre-Dry Twin 48-in. Sand Washer. The plant site includes a portable surge tunnel and rock is moved with Tele-Stacker conveyors, portable radial stacker conveyors, and interplant conveyors.”
“When the Colorado job is finished, it will be time to move the plant to a new location,” said FWI’s Ethan Strain, general manager. “We are in discussion with several companies to utilize this high-capacity portable crushing plant once that job is completed.”
The company also uses a KPI-JCI Fast Pack for customers throughout the country from Idaho to Indiana to Texas.
“The Fast Pack is fully automated and rated at more than 500 tph,” Denton said. “It is equipped with a Vanguard Series 3055 primary jaw, a JCI Kodiak 400+ cone crusher, a JCI 2500 VSI in the tertiary circuit and two JCI 8 x 20 horizontal screens.”
The Fast Pack is currently working in Lowell, Ind., for a leading aggregate producer, Strain said. The Fast Pack has annually relocated to the Lowell site over the past 10 years.
“Our crushing jobs have ranged from 100,000 tons to multi-million ton projects. Fred Weber has additional crushing spreads to accommodate individual customer needs. One of our unique strengths and benefits to the customer is that we self-perform job set-up and fabrication and deliver everything with our own fleet of heavy haul trucks.” Denton said.
Contract Mining
The FWI team of mining engineers, operators, laborers and fabricators blend modern equipment, technical expertise, and proven experience for cost efficient production and optimized facility design.
FWI delivers turn-key projects from idea through production startup, customized to fit the customer’s unique mining and aggregate processing needs.
“Typical work includes site earthwork, overburden removal; underground and surface development and mining; drilling, rock blasting and pre-splitting; portals; shafts; aggregate crushing/processing limestone, frac-sand and hard rock,” Denton said.
The company has been working on some interesting projects. They just finished an underground development project for a major producer in Indiana. In addition they are contract mining to help their customer meet product demands at a deep, 1,000-plus-ft. underground hard rock metal mine in Missouri.
FWI secured development and long-term underground mining agreements with two separate companies within the lime and cement industry. Both operations are located along the Mississippi River. One customer has recently renewed for an additional 10 years of underground production mining.
Production and Core Hole Drilling
In late 2021, FWI acquired General Drilling Inc. (GDI). “GDI provides safe, reliable and expert solutions to the blast-hole drilling needs of stone quarries throughout the Midwest and Texas,” Denton said.
GDI operates a fleet of more than 30 track and truck-mounted Sandvik and Epiroc drill rigs. Rigs are equipped to drill 3 ½- to 8-in. diameter blast hole and angled holes of up to 30 degrees. GDI has a team of 38 full-time drillers, 10 mechanics and a full-time director of safety and training to ensure safety and quality are at the forefront every day.
“We work primarily in Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, some in Illinois and then last year we got Texas going,” Strain said.
“We entered the Texas market last year,” Denton added. “Demand is excellent. We are acquiring more drills for and adding a centrally located shop and office to service our fleet and customers.
FWI has very recently invested into the exploration core drilling business to support the critical minerals market. The company has acquired an experienced staff of veteran core drillers and equipment. FWI believes there is an opportunity to help in the critical minerals market due to increasing domestic demand.
Victory Rock
FWI acquired a majority interest in Victory Rock Companies last year. Scott Cusick is leading the Victory Rock team in Texas.
Victory acquired idled quarries in Jarrell and Palo Pinto and very quickly re-opened them. CEO Doug Weible said, “Within 16 months, we reconfigured the sites with equipment, manpower, rolling stock and a motivated sales team, creating robust and profitable operations.” A major aggregate producer took notice and acquired both operations from FWI in July of this year.
Weible added, “This business model is something other aggregate producers may want to consider. Take advantage of our experience and ability to be nimble. We have demonstrated success in being able to quickly navigate the business requirements from start-up to full operation in a fraction of the time typically seen in the industry.”
Transloading and More
FWI is also a partner in the transloading business on the Mississippi River. The operation, Riverview Commerce Park, is located just south of St. Louis.
“We are loading and unloading barges, trucks and rail cars. The site has the capacity to handle 2 million tpy of bulk commodities,” Denton said
FWI also has a long-term contract with a very unique non-aggregates business. It has a contract to excavate and screen Auto Shredder Residue (ASR) from a private ASR landfill. FWI transports the ASR 10 miles by interstate to a non-ferrous metals recovery facility. The post-processed ASR is then transported back to the landfill for disposal by FWI.
“FWI has transitioned itself into a different company than we were previously,” Denton said. “But we still bring the same work ethic and dedication to the industry as before. We just deliver it in different ways than we used to.”