General Info

"We built our business from the ground up. Concrete Specialties began manufacturing precast concrete products in Clarendon Hills, Illinois in 1963. Our first owners, Dick Ekins and Tom Taylor, produced concrete blocks, cinder blocks, septic tanks and other building material composed of cement, sand, stone or gravel. In 1986, EOCN Corporation, a holding company owned by the Nondorf family, purchased the business. At that time, Concrete Specialties exclusively manufactured manhole products with a maximum diameter of 72 inches. In 1993, we acquired Hill Concrete Products, a successful manhole manufacturer in Hazel Crest, Illinois, and added a number of customers from south and southwestern Chicago. By 1996, we built a new, more efficient, manufacturing plant in Elgin, Illinois to service our growing customer base. This facility featured state-of-the-art equipment and methodologies, and expanded our products to 120-inch diameter. The acquisitions of Northwind Concrete Products Romeoville and South Beloit in 1998 and 2000 moved business in a new direction. ( Northwind produced concrete pipe in diameters ranging from 12-inch to 120-inch, as well as box culvert. ) Now customers who bought manholes from Concrete Specialties and Hill Concrete could purchase pipe from Northwind. Buying new forms and equipment plus upgrading facilities meant we could produce a high-quality product more efficiently. In 2003, we purchased assets of Modern Building Materials in Kenosha, Wisconsin, adding an excellent 25-acre facility and giving us an entr e into the Wisconsin market."