Stone is just the start of…

Growing and Scaling our Family Business

Let’s Grow Together

Celebrating our growth in the Southeast and our people-focused strategy

In 2015, when we launched Vision 2020, we committed to growing our company outside of Virginia, our heritage region. Fast-forward to today, and we have an exciting story to tell about our growth in the Southeast, including what we have planned for the future.

A majority of our growth is through greenfields—large, undeveloped parcels of land that are well-suited for quarry development. When we buy a piece of land and are ready to develop it, we approach each opportunity with the goal of being a partner and a collaborator with new neighbors, customers, and potential associates.

John Pullen

“Our growth strategy is about people.

We are not interested in growth for growth’s sake—we want to strategically add to our business, give our associates opportunities to grow, and have a positive impact on our communities.”

Connecting and Collaborating with Our Communities

Luck Companies enters each new community with a high standard for starting and maintaining a collaborative and positive relationship for everyone involved.

“Our people dedicate their time, and we dedicate our resources, to help communities become stronger,” said John Pullen, Chief Enterprise Strategy Officer. “As we enter a community, we bring resources including financial and human capital, which leads to increased economic development. And, as we stay there and grow, we bring sustainability, relationships, and connection.”

Our team spends a lot of time getting to know the community and its needs. This starts with engaging with local leaders, citizens, and organizations very early in the process. We host community events to listen to concerns and answer questions.

“We spend a lot of time finding out what’s important to the community,” Joe Carnahan, Chief Growth Officer said. “We know the importance of building trust, and we do that by listening to concerns and needs and finding ways to partner to address them.”

This connection and collaboration vary according to each community’s unique needs, so we spend time learning about the community and hearing from neighbors about what is needed. Often our engagement with the community involves volunteering, providing financial donations, sharing our expertise through educational programming, or donating our product to help achieve specific goals.

Learn more about growing with us.

Kershaw Team

Opening a new site—from finding a greenfield, putting the shovel in the ground, and eventually getting rock out of a quarry—is a huge engineering feat.

We are approaching this work with diligence and a ton of care, thanks to a cross-functional team of associates who work together to make it happen.”

OUR REASON FOR GROWTH

While growth creates financial opportunity, it has never been the core driving factor for Luck Companies. When we grow, we create new opportunities for our associates, our partners, and our communities.

“Growth for us is a way to expand the reach of our mission,” said Joe. “The more sites we have over a larger geographic area, the more chances we have to activate our mission.”

All of our associates make growth possible, whether being directly involved in an acquisition, developing a greenfield, driving a haul truck, working in the scale office, or being a part of the Finance team. The revenue we generate, the safety record we uphold, and how we carry ourselves with customers and communities bring our culture and brand to life—creating a reputation that makes growth possible.

Whether it’s a greenfield or an acquisition, it requires a tremendous team effort across many parts of our company. “Opening a new site—from finding a greenfield, putting the shovel in the ground, and eventually getting rock out of a quarry—is a huge engineering feat,” said Joe. “We are approaching this work with diligence and a ton of care, thanks to a cross-functional team of associates who work together to make it happen.”

“When it comes down to it, our performance over the last ten years has made it possible to pursue our growth plans,” Joe said. “And that performance is the result of the work of every associate at the company.”

What exactly is a greenfield?

A greenfield is a piece of land that is largely undeveloped and underutilized. Luck Companies undertakes a thorough site selection process for vetting parcels of land. Once we purchase a greenfield, we may elect to reserve it for future mining activity and market expansion or we may promptly begin the internal process to fully design and operationalize the site.

Steps to Greenfielding

When we are working to develop a new site, our goal is always to have a positive impact on the communities we are joining.  We meet with neighbors and stakeholders throughout the process, receiving community input all along the way.

Identify Land

1. Identify Land

We develop relationships with large landowners in our markets to determine if they are a good fit for quarry use – including a location that allows for convenient truck service to our markets, or access to rail or water provider service to those markets.

2. Establish Geology

If determined that the best use of the property or highest need for community growth is an aggregate site, we must confirm that the areas have viable geological resources. These studies entail taking samples of materials for testing to ensure that the stone meets stringent quality & property standards that facilitate the production of construction grade aggregates. This process includes drilling, lab testing, and subsurface mapping.

3. Due Diligence

Our due diligence activities are vast and focus on understanding environmental, cultural, and habitat attributes within the property. Additionally, we research county planning documents, adjacent and nearby properties and development patterns. Many of these investigative activities are applicable to local, state, & federal permitting. However, all of this learning is employed for consideration and design to ensure that our proposals ensure responsible actions for the uses and that we are being a steward of the land in support of communities.

4. In-Person Visits

Once access to a cleared property has been obtained, we make contact and request a site visit. An initial tour of the property will identify land characteristics that indicate the presence of aggregates. We will also drill to establish both depths of overburden (dirt or unsuitable rock) and the quality of the material.

5. Acquire Permits

Once a site is determined to be a viable source of construction grade aggregate, we proceed with the permitting process, including extensive conversation with the community about our operations and the specifics of our plans. To date, every application we have undertaken has significantly benefitted from public input. We also plan for future reclamation of the property to include water storage reservoirs or land development.

6. Plan for Operations

When a permit is received, we begin planning for operations, including hiring local engineers, surveyors, site work contractors and others to build plants and infrastructure, as well as hiring associates for operation of the facility.

kershaw

Growing Our Company to Grow Our People

“As we have acquired new sites or worked to operationalize greenfields, there are countless impactful stories about people who have moved and grown into new roles that they may never have dreamed of,” Joe said.

At each new site, you will find associates who have moved from Virginia to join a new team of Luck Stone associates in Georgia, North Carolina, or South Carolina. They not only share their technical expertise but also model our values and our culture. This is an important part of ensuring our culture and values remain consistent and strong as we grow.

Learn more about joining our team.

Kershaw Plant

Matt O’Maley

Today, Matt O’Maley, originally from our plant in Culpeper, Virginia, is the Plant Manager at our Enoree Plant in Enoree, South Carolina.

“When Luck Stone acquired the Kershaw Plant, I was asked to come down and train the new associates. I taught them how to run the equipment but also spent time sharing Luck Stone’s culture,” Matt said. “I was asked if I would be interested in moving to South Carolina and felt a tremendous amount of pride in developing the site and growing my leadership skills there. Over the last few years, as we’ve grown our footprint in South Carolina, I’ve been able to move up within the company. I have learned so much about the business, and I don’t think I would ever have had this opportunity anywhere else.”

Zack DeBruhl

Zack DeBruhl, Maintenance Material Coordinator, joined Luck Stone as a part of the Kershaw, South Carolina acquisition.

“The opportunities I’ve had since becoming a Luck Stone associate have been amazing. I have been able to progress in the organization, starting as a Surface Miner after the Kershaw Plant acquisition and now, I’m the Maintenance Material Coordinator with responsibilities at three plants across our South Carolina footprint.”

Darian Archie

Darian Archie, Pit Foreman, has made growth with Luck Stone a family affair.

“I was raised in Chester County, South Carolina. Now I work at Luck Stone’s Kershaw Plant in Kershaw, South Carolina,” he said. “Being here as an associate, I admire how committed we are to taking care of each other just as we do our families. My son, Darius Archie, has joined the Luck Stone team in Fairfield, South Carolina. I am excited to see him grow and develop professionally into a great person and leader at Luck Stone.”

fairfield

EXPANDING OUR REACH FOR CUSTOMERS

As we grow our footprint, we can be better partners to customers in the Southeast. This means working with existing customers in new locations or offering new customers another option in markets with limited selection to source stone.

“We always believe that we can show up in a highly engaging, service-oriented way for our customers,” Joe said. “As a family-owned and operated producer of aggregates, we can offer a higher level of care and quality, and we have proven that we can maintain that in new markets as we have grown.”

Cementing Our Legacy for Years to Come

“We are an over 100-year-old company that started with one site in Virginia then grew to 5 quarries, then to 15. When I joined the company in 2003, we were fortunate to already have so many amazing customer relationships that had been developed over many years and still have an impact on our organization today. Now that’s what we are doing in these new regions—building relationships that will benefit our teams for decades. It’s really exciting to pave new paths for growth that will create a legacy for associates many years from now.”

INTRODUCING OURSELVES TO NEW COMMUNITIES

Each time we enter a new community, we approach it with a goal to build trust so we can bring our mission to life there. When we acquire a site, neighbors are already accustomed to having a quarry nearby, but we want to show them how we like to be a partner and active member of the community. This process is more intricate when we are starting from scratch with a greenfield.

Following extensive technical study and assessment, and prior to being able to operationalize a greenfield, we are required to work through a multi-layered permitting process, and we meet with the community early, and often, along the way.

“Engaging the community is integral,” said Ben Thompson, Director of Greenfield Development at Luck Companies. “We want to fully introduce ourselves and make sure that we have our passionate, knowledgeable team members available at the community meetings we hold. We want to find out what’s important to the communities we’re hopeful to join. We want to support their ambitions and build trust.”

In July 2023, we created a new position and hired Susan Mitchell as our Community Engagement Manager. This is a testament to how important building and maintaining strong relationships in our communities is to us.

helene relief

“It’s exciting to introduce Luck Companies to new communities and show them that we want to be a community partner for years to come,” said Susan.

“We support them by volunteering, creating partnerships and sponsorships, and providing funding for specific programs.”

As we have grown outside our heritage region, we are entering communities that may have never heard of Luck Companies and may be skeptical of our intent to be a multi-generational community partner. We provide reassurance by spending a lot of time with them in order to understand their needs and aspirations.

“A key differentiator for us is our high level of empathy and care for people,” Ben said. “We recognize that many potential neighbors may be anxious about our industry. We employ genuine curiosity and empathy as we engage to better understand concerns, build relationships, educate, and leverage collaboration to achieve the greatest positive project and generational community impact.”

Every community engagement is different because we base our partnership around their specific needs.

In Fairfield, South Carolina, the community needed help with some critical community infrastructure. We have helped them reach their goals for a new Chamber of Commerce building and a new Community Center.

In Enoree, South Carolina, the community voiced an interest in education, so our teams worked with Woodruff High School to support career development programs to share information about the careers that are offered by the mining and quarrying industry. Our teams also supported earth science education through a “cupcake mining” activity where we shared how the rock cycle and geology impact the daily lives of everyone.

Through our time in the school, we saw a need for financial support of the sports programs to ensure that children were offered the opportunity to support their well-being while learning essential soft skills taught by participating in team sports. Luck Companies remains an active booster of Woodruff High School Athletics and provided further funds and resources to their fishing team and cheer squad.

When we entered Chester, South Carolina, the school board wanted help connecting its graduates to technical trades, so we focused our energy there and addressed this specific need. We shared our knowledge and spent time in schools discussing opportunities in our industry. We made this commitment very early in the process, and we are still working closely with the community to address these challenges.

Wesley Church (Saluda)
Ben Thompson

“A key differentiator for us is our high level of empathy and care for people.

We recognize that many potential neighbors may be anxious about our industry. We employ genuine curiosity and empathy as we engage to better understand concerns, build relationships, educate, and leverage collaboration to achieve the greatest positive project and generational community impact.”

What is the permitting process for a greenfield?

When a greenfield site becomes viable and we are interested in moving forward, we have to go through a zoning process to get approval to operate our business on the land.

STEP 1: Local Approval

Local approval is when we introduce ourselves to the local community members who may have never heard of Luck Companies. Our goal is to educate them about who we are and share information about our operations and the benefits of having us in their community. Eventually, the community votes to approve or deny our proposal for local land use.

STEP 2: State Approval

State approval is a more technical review of our plans. It’s based on the science of the proposal and whether the state believes we will be a good steward of the property and the industry.

After the zoning permits are approved, our Growth team passes the baton to our Operations team and broader cross-functional team of Luck Companies associates who develop and implement the buildout of the site.

STEP 3: Due Diligence

Our due diligence activities focus on understanding environmental, cultural, and habitat attributes within the property. We research county planning documents, adjacent and nearby properties, and development patterns. All of this learning is reflected in each of our proposals, allowing us to be stewards of the land and partners to our communities.

Fairfield

First and Flourishing

Fairfield Timeline

Fairfield is the first greenfield we have opened outside of Virginia in over 25 years. It has served as a tremendous learning opportunity that we can use as a framework as we plan for other greenfields.

“It was an excellent learning opportunity for everyone,” said Matt Pullin, Regional Operations Manager for Luck Stone. “Not just on-site in South Carolina, but as a company. There are so many people working to open a greenfield. There are a few of us on site currently, but in planning meetings, there are over 20 people present from across the company.”

As the team worked through the site’s operationalization, it referenced a playbook created with the planning team. The playbook includes all of the technical details, an understanding of the land, and commitments made to the community. The team used the playbook as the source of truth, but also adjusted plans as they became more familiar with the area.

April 2022

Luck Stone received the state and local county approval required to quarry granite on our 415+ acre greenfield site in Fairfield County.

September 2022

We developed a road system, installed 3 bottomless culverts to cross wetland areas without disturbance, prepared pad areas for the plant and facilities infrastructure, and removed overburden from the future pit area.

February 2023

As the pit area stripping was continuing, we planned the first production shot to help develop the entrance ramp system that will serve as future access into the pit. Our operations teams worked with neighbors in the area to share the timing of the first shot, and what to expect.

August 2023

Our Engineering team worked to install the crushing facilities. The Production team worked to break in the plant and began to build product stockpiles in preparation for the opening of the site.

September 2023

The plant opened its doors for sales of rock with the very first load being donated to one of our community partners, the South Carolina Railroad Museum.

“There are always unknowns that you discover about the property and the deposit of the rock,” Joe said. “It’s really hard work. For example, overburden and sap rock mix with the rock, blasting can be challenging, and there is often not enough space to load, haul, and blast at the same time. Our teams constantly deal with pumps, groundwater, and other moving pieces.”

Matt agrees that despite operationalizing the Fairfield site in just one year, it had its own challenges and surprises. As with any significant project, the on-site team had to pivot as they discovered new details.

The contractor we worked with to move the dirt had to travel approximately 2 miles round trip to dump the dirt, which is a significant distance. There was also an extensive amount of engineering and design work to address three bottomless culverts on the property.

“We had all the plans you could think of on paper,” Matt said. “But there are many split-second decisions when things turn out a little differently than anticipated. Our Engineering and Operational Support teams were always available to troubleshoot, and there are also just some things that you must assess with the local team.”

Fairfield Associates

SERVING CUSTOMERS TODAY

The team moved at record speed to get the site up and running in just one year, and a customer—Scout Motors—was depending on us to open within that time.

“Having a customer in place allowed us to hit the ground running,” Matt said. “It provided solid sales support for the costs of a new greenfield.”

Things have not slowed down for the team in Fairfield. In May 2024, the site crushed 73,000 tons of rock, and the following month, it installed a second tertiary crusher to keep up with production.

“For the first 3 to 5 years, there will be exciting challenges, feedback from customers, and product adjustments to get the site to a more mature phase,” Matt said. “However, all of the top lift has treated us pretty well so far.”

Matt Pullin

“The most exciting part of all of this is not just seeing the sites develop but all of the people growing and developing with them.

I have been a part of every hire, and we have so many new people in new roles at every level and position.”

CREATING NEW PATHS FOR ASSOCIATES

Matt Pullin is no stranger to the personal opportunity that can come as we open new sites. He and his family moved from Spotsylvania, Virginia, to South Carolina in 2018. He helped with the Kershaw site and then Fairfield, and is now serving in his current role as Regional Operations Manager to continue overseeing these plants and our Enoree Plant.

“We were pretty settled and close to family in Virginia,” he said. “But my wife and I moved here with two babies and committed to only staying a few years. However, we love it here so much, that we have decided to call it home.”

It is no surprise that Matt continues to pay his own success story forward with his passion for developing other associates and finding opportunities for them to thrive.

“The most exciting part of all of this is not just seeing the sites develop but all of the people growing and developing with them,” he said. “I have been a part of every hire, and we have so many new people in new roles at every level and position.”

Matt and his team take this responsibility very seriously as they introduce people to the technical side of our business, our values, and the critical approach we take to safety at our sites.

When Matt reflects on his experience at Fairfield, people are always top of mind—the associates running the site today, and everyone who contributed to making it a reality.

“I can’t stress enough how grateful we are to be here, supporting the needs of this community, and growing our team along the way,” Matt said. “We are learning so much and are carrying it forward with each new greenfield site. It’s an exciting time to be here.”

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