“We’ve been looking to expand in the aggregate market in Dayton for quite awhile and this location worked for us,” he said.
Larry Phillips, vice president of business development, said the assets of the Vandalia operation were purchased out of receivership.
Phillips Cos. has been looking to acquisitions as a way to grow the business for awhile. Miller Brothers was one of several businesses in Ohio the company had courted as a possible acquisition, Larry Phillips said.
Senior management of the company, now in its fourth generation of family ownership, scouted along Interstate 75 between Dayton and Atlanta for companies to purchase, Larry Phillips said. The company continues to look at other acquisitions, too, he said.
Beavercreek-based Phillips hired four former Miller Brothers employees and also shifted four of its existing staffers from Greene County to Vandalia.
The assets gained in the deal included an office building, the gravel pit and equipment.
The new location gives the company facilities both east and north of Dayton and provides access to markets in northern Montgomery and southern Miami counties as well as Darke and Clark counties, executives said.
Since sand and gravel are commodity items, the shipping costs can determine whether a supplier makes a sale, which makes the proximity to a job site important.
Established in 1942, Phillips’ business units include aggregates, ready-mix concrete, concrete pumping, landscape supplies, trucking and site-development services.