Expansion of market footprint in the Northeast of the USA
- Entry into urban areas, such as New York, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and Baltimore
- Product portfolio enlarged through facing bricks for commercial buildings and high-quality architectural projects
- Further step towards active market consolidation in North America
Through its US subsidiary General Shale, the Wienerberger Group acquires Watsontown Brick, a highly profitable company based in Pennsylvania. With this move, Wienerberger broadens its market footprint in the Northeastern US regions of New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania, which together represent one of the most interesting markets for high-quality brick products, and in Canada.
We are pursuing a strategy of active market consolidation in the USA. The reorientation of our activities initiated a few years ago is producing the desired results, as confirmed by the highly satisfactory development of earnings in North America. Watsontown Brick, a leading supplier of high-quality facing bricks, is a perfect fit for us. Moreover, this acquisition strengthens our business in the urban construction market in major agglomerations. By swiftly integrating Watsontown Brick into our existing US platform, we will drive the optimization of the company’s performance in terms of costs and products. As we see enormous potential in our US business, we intend to continue on our growth path in this region in the years to come.
Watsontown Brick operates a modern and highly efficient production site with four manufacturing lines and a production capacity of 92 million standard brick units. The company has about 50 employees and looks back on a history of 110 years, which makes it one of the oldest and most traditional US producers of bricks for residential and commercial applications. With its subsidiary General Shale, Wienerberger is a premium supplier of facing bricks and plastic pipes as well as concrete and calcium silicate products in North America. The Group operates 37 sales outlets and production sites (excluding Watsontown Brick) in North America and employs a workforce of 1,350 people.
The acquisition of Watsontown is part of a strategy of value-generating growth. It is in line with Wienerberger’s investment criteria and makes a direct contribution to the Group’s net profit. It has been agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
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