Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 6, 1993 TAG: 9307060186
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHLEEN WILSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
And at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, they're grateful for that.
Over the past 10 years, Old Virginia Brick has furnished UVa with more than 10 million bricks.
Thanks to the 103-year-old brickyard, the UVa campus has been able to grow the way everyone in Charlottesville wanted it to: In the manner that Thomas Jefferson would have done it.
In fact, there is only one real difference between Mr. Jefferson's bricks and Old Virginia's:
Mr. Jefferson's grow old. Old Virginia Brick's are born that way.
It's still the same mixture of mud and clay and straw and sand. But today, modern technology slings the mixture into wood molds.
But don't get the idea machinery has taken over. One walk through the dusty plant shows that every single brick is handled with care and keenly inspected by many of its 68 factory workers.
This wood mold process - Old Virginia Brick is one of just a dozen companies in this country that still make brick this way - most closely simulates the handmade bricks of the 17th century.
They mine the clay from a shale pit behind the Holiday Inn in Salem. "Then we transport it, grind it, fabricate it, and deliver it," explained Chris Moore, vice president of sales.
"All that for 2 1/2 cents a pound. There aren't many products made today delivered for that price."
Back in 1914, when Henry Garden of Salem purchased the company from George Pierpont of Connecticut, who founded it it 1890, Old Virginia Brick churned out 7,500,000 bricks and grossed $11,000.
This year, they'll make 25 million of this nation's 6 billion bricks. The company's principals won't say how much money that means.
"We've got the capability to produce twice that," said Fletcher Smoak, chairman and CEO. The dormant housing market forced the company to shut down its second kiln a year ago. They've been operating at 50 percent of capacity ever since.
One option Old Virginia Brick has to increase its business would be to start making wire-cut or extraction mass production bricks, a segment that engulfs 94 percent of the market.
That seems unlikely, though. Smoak and Moore are rock solid in their belief the company should remain right where it is. In specialty brick, where they've established a strong niche.
"I like the aesthetics of handmade brick," explained Smoak, a ceramic engineer who worked previously for Babcock & Wilcox and for the Bureau of Mines in Washington, D.C.
To drum up business, he jokes about donating brick for the first building erected at any new college or university.
"Eventually they'll have to build more and they'll want to match the original brick," he said. That's worked as a blueprint for profit often enough.
The addition to brick supplied to UVa - for the Darden School and the University of Virginia School of Law to name just two prominent buildings there - Old Virginia Brick boasts buildings at a long and impressive line of institutions.
The College of William and Mary. The National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Md. The Federal Emergency Center in Denver.
And company folklore - that admittedly smacks just a little of a tall tale - has it that you'll even find Old Virginia Brick at the American Embassy.
In Australia.
And though Smoak is a Clemson graduate and Moore a Wahoo, the two quickly admit a strong allegiance to . . . Wake Forest University?
"Old Virginia Brick has built more than 90 percent of the buildings on that campus," admitted Moore.
In North Carolina, the very center of the brickmaking universe as the state that manufactures and ships more brick per capita than any other - Old Virginia Brick maintains a position of excellence.
Structures built from Old Virginia's brick, such as the North Carolina Biotechnology Center in Raleigh, continually snap up state masonry awards.
David Bandy, vice president and director of design for the Roanoke consulting engineering firm Sherertz Franklin Crawford Shaffner, described Old Virginia's brick "as high-quality as Williamsburg."
He ought to know. Bandy has never designed a building that wasn't made of brick.
"They're reputable and really stand behind their product," Bandy explained. "At Old Virginia Brick, they work hard to help you use their product."
Carilion's Brambleton Family Physician's Center, the Cave Spring Post Office on Virginia 419 and the Fintel Library at Roanoke College are just three of many local award-winning structures made of Old Virginia Brick.
"And everyone who travels through the Old Dominion gets a look at us," Moore said cryptically.
That's because Old Virginia Brick provided all the brick for every rest stop along the interstates.
Virginia and the rest of the South has been a strong traditional market for Old Virginia Brick, but decidedly flat in growth.
Growth opportunity lies in the midwest and northeast, two regions the company already impressively penetrates.
The housing market may seem bleak right now, but Moore points out that in many ways, brick is just taking off.
Market research conducted by the Bluegrass Brick Alliance in Louisville, Ky. shows that while 83 percent of people prefer brick, just 43 percent actually get it.
"Unlike the Milk Council and the Beef Council, the brick industry is just now learning to market itself," he said. "Basically in the past, we just made 'em up and people bought 'em."
Brickmakers are now learning to market brick as offering reduced fire insurance, higher security, lower maintenance, better insulation, and higher home appreciation.
"To install brick, it is a higher cost upfront," Moore admitted. "But the overall life-cycle cost is much lower."
To Moore, aluminum siding and artificial stucco are simply heresy.
The challenge is to make sure the rest of the world sees it that way, too.
From his cluttered desk, Moore unfolded a full-page Hanson ad from a recent The Wall Street Journal.
At the top, it shows a tiny computer terminal and reads, "This is the latest thing in microprocessing. In 12 months it will be obsolete."
Below that sits your basic brick. It reads:
"This is a brick. In 12 months, it will still be the very latest thing in bricks."
With that in mind, Old Virginia Brick doesn't seem to have much to worry about.
Back in 1914, Henry Garden saw the future and it was brick.
Almost 80 years later, it still seems to be.
\ OLD VIRGINIA BRICK\ A BRIEF HISTORY\ \ George Pierpont of Connecticut founded the Salem Brick Company in 1890.
\ Henry Garden purchased the Salem Brick Company in 1914 and renamed it Old Virginia Brick. Henry Garden Jr. began work full time at Old Virginia Brick after receiving a degree in ceramic science from Virginia Tech.
\ Upon retiring in 1985, Henry Garden Jr. sold Old Virginia Brick to three investors: Peter Groeschel, CEO; Fletcher Smoak, president; and Gil Meland, executive vice president.
\ Tarmac, the British aggregate conglomorate that also owned the Roanoke Cement Co., purchased Old Virginia Brick in 1987.
\ In 1990, four investors - Fletcher Smoak, chairman and CEO; Chris Moore, executive vice president; Lou Showalter, general manager of Nelson-Roanoke; and Frank Ellett, president of Virginia Truck Center - repurchase the Old Virginia Brick from Tarmac, making it one of the only wholly American-owned brick yards in the United States. Smoak, Moore, Showalter and Ellett own 92 percent of Old Virginia Brick. Its employees own the remaining 8 percent.
by CNB