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History was made at Mid America Brick in Mexico Friday afternoon when the first truckload of bricks was shipped from the plant.
The 30 cubes of facebrick (15,750 bricks) were being shipped by Croell Concrete Products to Hiawatha, Iowa, a suburb of Cedar Rapids.
The only brick manufacturer in central Missouri, the company has 43 employees and manufactures facebrick used in residential and commercial/industrial construction.
Mid America Brick & Structural Clay Products, LLC, 600 Green Blvd., began operating the former A.P. Green plant as a facebrick manufacturing facility. The plant currently operates one kiln and officials hope to be operating two next year, doubling its capacity to produce nearly 60 million bricks annually.
David Adams, vice president/sales said, “Obviously this is a milestone for our organization and a very good, positive milestone. Hopefully it’s the beginning of a long and prosperous business.”
The company sells brick through distributors. Their largest Missouri distributor is Midwest Block and Brick out of Jefferson City. MAB also works with others in Missouri as well as 20 other states.
The A.P. Green plant, which closed in 2002, was at one time one of the largest refractory brick manufacturers in the United States.
MAB President/CEO Frank Cordie acknowledged employees, federal, state and city government officials saying “all the hard work to get to this point is very gratifying. They are the ones that made this happen.”
Cordie had worked since November 2006 to open Mid America Brick, negotiating with private lenders and local, state and federal government agencies to secure financing for the project. On Friday, June 25, 2010 during the unveiling ceremony of the new business Cordie said, “Next year this time we’ll have trucks of brick made in Mexico, Missouri leaving here headed for construction sites.”
That vision was realized Friday.
History was made at Mid America Brick in Mexico Friday afternoon when the first truckload of bricks was shipped from the plant.
The 30 cubes of facebrick (15,750 bricks) were being shipped by Croell Concrete Products to Hiawatha, Iowa, a suburb of Cedar Rapids.
The only brick manufacturer in central Missouri, the company has 43 employees and manufactures facebrick used in residential and commercial/industrial construction.
Mid America Brick & Structural Clay Products, LLC, 600 Green Blvd., began operating the former A.P. Green plant as a facebrick manufacturing facility. The plant currently operates one kiln and officials hope to be operating two next year, doubling its capacity to produce nearly 60 million bricks annually.
David Adams, vice president/sales said, “Obviously this is a milestone for our organization and a very good, positive milestone. Hopefully it’s the beginning of a long and prosperous business.”
The company sells brick through distributors. Their largest Missouri distributor is Midwest Block and Brick out of Jefferson City. MAB also works with others in Missouri as well as 20 other states.
The A.P. Green plant, which closed in 2002, was at one time one of the largest refractory brick manufacturers in the United States.
MAB President/CEO Frank Cordie acknowledged employees, federal, state and city government officials saying “all the hard work to get to this point is very gratifying. They are the ones that made this happen.”
Cordie had worked since November 2006 to open Mid America Brick, negotiating with private lenders and local, state and federal government agencies to secure financing for the project. On Friday, June 25, 2010 during the unveiling ceremony of the new business Cordie said, “Next year this time we’ll have trucks of brick made in Mexico, Missouri leaving here headed for construction sites.”
That vision was realized Friday.
