Vulcan Update

With a court-ordered reprieve from a hostile takeover bid, Birmingham’s Vulcan Materials Co.—the largest provider of construction aggregates in the nation—re-elected four pro-Vulcan directors at their June 1 annual meeting.

Now the company faces another legal challenge, this time from its founding family, urging the current corporate leadership to make more money or sell.

Business Alabama talked with shareholders at the annual meeting and got mixed reviews of the current ownership struggle.

“I’ve lost money, ” said Bill Pritchard of Birmingham, who retired after 10 years as a district sales manager. “But I believe all we’ve got to do is wait for things to settle down, and the stock price will come back again. I think the directors have a good plan to get us on track again, and we’ll get through this.”

Bill Bradon, retired after 42 years managing purchasing and transportation, said he agreed with the court decision to send the contenders back to their corners for the moment but added, “I think that Vulcan Materials and Martin Marietta could have a future together. I’d much rather see that than have a huge international company take it over. That has happened in other cases.”

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—Kathy Hagood contributed to this item.


By Nedra Bloom

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