Premarc Corporation - 80 Years Strong

Premarc Corporation is Michigan's largest precast concrete manufacturer & the 66th largest precast concrete producer in the United States of America. The company manufactures up to 400,000 tons of concrete per year from four locations throughout Michigan, and can produce the largest dry cast concrete pipe in the state. Premarc employs 320, and has a fleet of 50 trucks.

The success of Premarc is a story of steady growth and change through a succession of family heirs dating to the Roaring Twenties.

The history of the company began in 1927 when the Genesee County Road Commission has a need for enclosed drains. Max Marsh thought he could accommodate that need by fabricating precast concrete pipe. He established Marsh Tile and Vault Company, which was a small pipe manufacturing and burial vault plant in the Village of Vernon in Shiawassee County. The pipe plant was capable of producing 12 pipe per day with 12-inch to 18-inch diameters and in 3-foot lengths. Marsh produced the pipe as an offset bell pipe with a butt joint spigot by utilizing wet cast technology. In addition to pipe and burial vaults, Max began producing cemetery monuments in 1935, and moved the company to its current location in Durand, Michigan.

Tragedy struck the family in 1942 when Max Marsh died from injuries suffered in an automobile crash. His two sons, Richard and Fred carried on the business that has become firmly established through the work of their father. The company suffered a temporary setback during World War II when pipe production was suspended in 1943 and the family business focused on producing burial vaults and cemetery monuments under the name, Marsh Monument Co.

After the war, the U.S. entered a period of unprecedented economic growth fueled by its industrial sector and growth of cities. The population of the nation exploded. In 1950, pent up demand for infrastructure improvements triggered the need for sewer gravity pipe and Marsh Monument Co. re-entered the concrete pipe market. At that time, Richard's sons Gary and Jack were in the business, as well as Fred's son Dan. Pipe was produced using a tamping machine, which produced 100 pipe per day.

Business was good, and by 1956, Marsh Monument expanded to incorporated the latest technology of the time by purchasing the first of three Packerhead machines to replace the traditional tamping process that had characterized the company's pipe making. These machines were capable of utilizing dry cast technology, which enabled Marsh Products to strip the pipe from mold during manufacturing which doubled production time and increased the overall quality of the pipe. The second machine was purchased in 1963 and located in a 300-foot X 80-foot addition with a moving floor system. The company was automating its production process and moving away from the labor-intensive production process that has served the company well. In 1969, the third Packerhead was added to the plant addition. Two years before, in 1967, Marsh extended its investment in the construction industry by purchasing a ready-mixed concrete business.

America's economy continued to expand through the sixties, and by the early seventies, Marsh was again planning its future through partnerships and acquisitions. In 1971, the Marsh family partnered with Ted Colegrove, to establish Precision Pipe in Clarkston, Michigan to build a market for its products in the Detroit area. The facility was designed to produce large diameter wet cast pipe.

Marsh remained in expansion mode, and by 1977, the company expanded its Durand facility to replace rolling cage technology with an automated wire cage machine. This allowed for increased quality control in the placement of steel within the concrete pipe. Through '78 and '79, the company experienced tremendous demand for products, while the company underwent a name change to Marsh Products and ownership changed hands to Dan and Jack Marsh, as the decade closed and the economy entered a period of recession.

At the beginning of the '80s, the Marsh family was selling reinforced concrete pipe from its facilities in Durand and Clarkston. The Durand facility was producing small diameter pipe in sizes ranging from 12 to 36 inches in diameter, while the Precision Pipe facility in Clarkston, managed by partner Ted Colegrove, produced 42 to 144-inch diameter pipe. Dan and Jack risked the entire company in 1982 with the largest investment the company ever made. They purchased the latest prototype machine called the Mastermatic, which made the Durand plant the most automated concrete pipe plant in the world. With the economy slowing to a crawl, most people in the industry thought that the family had met its demise and anxiously waited for the decades-old family business to fail.

Failure was not to be, as the family has witnessed many economic changes and knew that the time was opportune to advance the level of technology, once again, to be prepared for the next cycle of economic expansion. By 1984, the economy had recovered and the investment proved its worth. Marsh added Thomas Hager to the company as it's Chief Operating Officer. Tom led the charge to expand the company's core business by purchasing Cadillac Concrete Pipe & Culvert to diversify its product line. The acquisition positioned the company in the marketplace for producing manholes and corrugate metal pipe.

That year, Gary Marsh purchased the monument portion of the business, and Jack Marsh and Dan Marsh took over the concrete pipe portion. Jack became head of production, and Dan became responsible for sales. The Marsh business name was changed once again from Marsh Products to Premarc, which is the acronym that represented the combination of the three plants owned by the Marsh family. PRE stands for Precision Pipe, MAR for marsh Products and C for Cadillac Pipe.

Just before Richard Marsh passed away in 1983, the Durand plant was completely rebuilt with a Pedershaab VIHY-I pipe plant with a movable floor, which replaced the Packerhead plants. The new plant could produce up to three pipe at the same time. The business took a deep breath from its many changed experienced through the eighties and prepared for the final decade of the century.

In 1982, interests of the partners in Precision Pipe and Supply were purchased, and the ready-mixed concrete business sold, so that Premarc Corporation could focus on its core pipe-making business. Ted Colegrove passed away in the mid-eighties, and the Marsh family took over the remaining interests of Precision Pipe in Clarkston. Throughout the '80s and '90s, America's concrete pipe industry entered an era of mergers and acquisitions on a level never before seen. Markets were becoming more competitive, as well-positioned and funded concrete pipe companies, some owned by international building materials conglomerates, threatened local markets. To survive the new business model, companies had to become bigger with plants strategically located to ensure market share. Premarc was not to be dismissed as a small player, as it has decades of business experience and was well prepared to meet the major players left in the industry, head on.

Premarc began its most recent expansion plans by purchasing Lamar in 1991. Located in Grand Rapids, the acquisition adds market presence for Premarc in West Michigan. The machines at this facility have the capability of producing pipe in diameters of 12 to 48 inches in diameter. Its Teksam manhole machine is located at the same site as the Transmatic, as well as three prestressed concrete bridge beam beds. The purchase of Lamar resulted in a new company called Grand River Infrastructure, owned by the Marsh family through Premarc.

In 1999, a 57,000 square-foot building was added to the manufacturing facility in Clarkston. This addition included a new pipe machine, and two new manhole machines. Also added was an in-line manhole test line that would automatically insert manhole steps into cured manhole risers and a hydrostatic testing station. All manhole sections are automatically delivered to the yard, once testing is completed on the test line. The Marsh family marked another first, because the new production facility was the most automated manhole production facility in the world.

The history of the Marsh family is still being written as it enters the 21st Century. In 2000, it purchased GravityStone, NuseryStone and NovaBrik block lines and added a Besser Black machine to its Grand Rapids plant. Jack Marsh sold his interests in Premarc to Dan Marsh in 2001, leaving Dan and Dan's sons as the primary shareholder of the Premarc Corporation until this day. Continued growth and a commitment to quality ensures Premarc's success for future generations.

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