Vulcan Materials

The company’s predecessor was the Birmingham Slag Company, founded by Solon Jacobs and Henry L. Badham to sell blast-furnace slag as a building and road material. It was incorporated in the summer of 1910 with Jacobs as president. In 1916 Ohio businessman Charles Lincoln Ireland bought the company and sent his sons to Alabama to run it.⁠[1]

On December 31, 1956, the Ireland family incorporated Vulcan Materials Company, folding in the Birmingham Slag assets and Vulcan Detinning Company, a New Jersey firm already listed on the New York Stock Exchange. On January 2, 1957, the stock traded in New York under the symbol VMC at $12.69 a share.⁠[2]

In 1957 the company bought Union Chemical and Materials Corporation of Chicago, taking it into the chemicals business.⁠[3]

In July 1987 the company formally announced the Crescent Market Project, a $170 million joint venture with a large Latin American construction conglomerate to quarry limestone on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Shipments began in 1990.⁠[3]

On June 7, 2005, the company completed the sale of its chemicals business, Vulcan Chemicals, to Occidental Chemical Corporation. Its annual report then described it as the nation’s largest producer of construction aggregates and a major producer of asphalt and concrete.⁠[4]

On November 15, 2007, the company said its deal with Florida Rock Industries had cleared Justice Department review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, subject to divesting certain operations in Tennessee, Georgia and Virginia.⁠[5]

The deal closed on November 16, 2007: the former Vulcan Materials Company was renamed Legacy Vulcan Corp. and, together with Florida Rock, became a wholly owned subsidiary of a new parent named Vulcan Materials Company (formerly Virginia Holdco, Inc.), whose stock kept the NYSE symbol VMC. Florida Rock holders received $67 in cash for 70 percent of their shares and 0.63 Vulcan share for 30 percent.⁠[6]

Based on Vulcan’s closing share price on November 15, 2007, the total consideration was about $4.2 billion. Florida Rock produced construction aggregates, cement, concrete and concrete products in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.⁠[7]

On December 12, 2011, rival Martin Marietta Materials launched an exchange offer of 0.50 Martin Marietta share for each Vulcan share and said it planned to nominate five directors at Vulcan’s 2012 annual meeting.⁠[8]

On December 28, 2011, Vulcan’s board unanimously rejected the roughly $4.8 billion offer as “illegal and opportunistic,” alleging misuse of confidential information obtained earlier, and sued in an Alabama federal court while filing a counterclaim in Delaware.⁠[9]

On May 4, 2012, the Delaware Court of Chancery found that Martin Marietta had breached a confidentiality agreement signed by the two companies and enjoined its $5.5 billion takeover attempt for four months.⁠[10]

On May 31, 2012, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Chancery ruling.⁠[11]

On July 14, 2014, the board named J. Thomas Hill, then executive vice president and chief operating officer, president and CEO, with Don James becoming executive chairman. Hill had first joined the company in 1979 and had led the former Florida Rock and Southwest divisions.⁠[12]

In 2018 Vulcan filed an arbitration claim against Mexico over its Calica quarrying operations, seeking $1.53 billion plus interest and costs. Calica’s operations were completely shut in May 2022, and in September 2024 the government designated 53,000 hectares between Playa del Carmen and Tulum a protected natural area.⁠[13]

On July 27, 2026, an ICSID tribunal found that Mexico breached the fair and equitable treatment standard of NAFTA Article 1105 and awarded Legacy Vulcan $15,884,117 plus compound interest for the El Corchalito shutdown. It rejected the port fee claim and found it lacked jurisdiction over the 2022 La Rosita shutdown claim.⁠[14]

On August 26, 2021, the company announced that it had completed its previously announced acquisition of U.S. Concrete. Chairman and CEO Tom Hill said: “Today is an important milestone as we welcome U.S. Concrete and its talented team to Vulcan.”⁠[15]

On September 26, 2024, the company announced a definitive agreement to acquire Wake Stone Corporation, a pure-play aggregates supplier in the Carolinas.⁠[16]

The Wake Stone and Superior Ready Mix acquisitions both closed in the fourth quarter of 2024, the latter solidifying its position as the leading aggregates producer in Southern California. In 2024 it also completed two bolt-on acquisitions in Alabama and Texas, and from 2022 to 2024 it invested $2,890.8 million in acquisitions.⁠[17]

On October 13, 2025, the company announced that chief operating officer Ronnie Pruitt would become CEO effective January 1, 2026, with chairman and CEO Tom Hill moving to executive chairman of the board. Pruitt, formerly CEO of U.S. Concrete, joined Vulcan through that acquisition in August 2021 and had been chief operating officer since August 2023.⁠[18]

In 2025 the company had 425 active aggregates facilities, and as of January 1, 2026, it employed 11,172 people in the United States.⁠[19]

On February 17, 2026, the company posted full-year 2025 total revenues of $7,941.1 million (2024: $7,417.7 million), net earnings attributable to Vulcan of $1,076.7 million (2024: $911.9 million), Adjusted EBITDA of $2,323.6 million and aggregates shipments of 226.8 million tons. The company is a member of the S&P 500 IndexS&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry.⁠[20]

On October 29, 2026, the company posted third-quarter 2026 total revenues of $2,184.6 million, net earnings attributable to Vulcan of $362.3 million and aggregates shipments of 62.7 million tons, down 3 percent. It completed two bolt-on acquisitions in the quarter, in Tennessee and southern Ohio. Its California concrete assets had been divested in the second quarter of 2026.⁠[21]