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Email Story to a Friend June 10, 2006 Cement company mixer Local LTM and Medford Ready-Mix will unite to provide better concrete services By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune LTM and Medford Ready-Mix have shared the same corporate umbrella since the 1990s, and now the two concrete pouring companies are under the same roof. Knife River Corp., a unit of Bismarck, N.D.-based MDU Resources, bought LTM in 1993 and acquired Medford Ready-Mix in 1998. LTM operates two concrete plants on Hamrick Road and Medford Ready-Mix has a plant east of Crater Lake Avenue near Costco. Ron Howard, general manager at Medford Ready-Mix, will become the sales manager at LTM and Mike Milhoan will oversee both ready-mix operations. LTM's vice president of marketing Don Skundrick said: "We feel we can have a better impact with all those trucks and drivers together. The Medford Ready-Mix name will go away and we'll all be under the LTM banner and brand identity. From outside, what our customers will notice the most is that the yellow trucks will become white." Skundrick said the Medford Ready-Mix plant, which is on leased land, and perhaps one of the Hamrick road plants will close after a new high-speed ready-mix plant goes online in 2007. Historically, Medford Ready-Mix catered to residential builders and developments, while LTM did major commercial and road work. Coordinating the plants that straddled the east and west sides of the Medford airport creates a more efficient operation, Milhoan said. Advertisement "We're one supplier running 41 trucks from three different plants now," Milhoan said. "Being able to centrally dispatch allows us to attack jobs quicker. From Medford Ready-Mix, we can do Foothills and White City, or if a truck is coming out of Eagle Point we can send it up to a job on Springbrook. We can take care of larger and smaller projects at the same time. In the past, when one company had a large pour, the rest of our customers suffered. Now we're able to handle more at one time." LTM is examining several possible plant locations, and what they find may determine the fate of the Hamrick Road plants. The new plant will be capable of producing 37 truckloads per hour, equal or more productive than the three existing plants. One of the three Hamrick Road plants produces 12 to 14 loads per hour and the other two pump out between eight and 10, Milhoan said. Both companies had capital expenditure money set aside for new plants; if LTM wins corporate approval it will build a high-output wet-batch plant with better consistency than the region's present dry-batch operations. Milhoan said he estimated it would take 30 days to build a plant and another 30 days to build the aggregate feeding system. "We're trying to line up everything in 2006 so that we can start operation in 2007," Milhoan said. "Ready-mix plants are very expensive and where you put them in the valley is huge. You're basically creating a hub for where your trucks operate." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker Custom Build Computers Discount Hotel Reservations --> online casinos news Ashley Furniture HomeStore Send Flowers California Casinos GMAT Prep Windermere Van Vleet Sports Equipment Online Casino Reviews Entertainment Guide --> Online Casino Fundraisers Sudoku Online Casinos Canada Online Pharmacy Advertisements Advertisement