Sullivan County plant celebrates grand opening

By Howard Greninger
The Tribune-Star

Sullivan County June 23, 2009 10:31 pm

— Canadian-based Brampton Brick Limited on Tuesday officially opened its new nearly $50-million manufacturing facility just south of Farmersburg in Sullivan County.
The plant, at peak capacity, will produce 100 million standard bricks per year. The nearly 200,000-square-foot facility initially is operating at 50-percent capacity with 15 workers. The plant will employ about 24 when at full capacity. The plant can be expanded to double its brick-making capacity to 200 million bricks a year.
President and CEO Jeffrey G. Kerbel said the company had been searching for two years for a site to build a new brick plant. Kerbel said other companies such as Boral Brick and General Shale already had facilities in the Wabash Valley, which led Brampton officials to take a closer look at its current site.
“This has a great shale resource, great transportation and a very cooperative county and a great work force,” Kerbel said before making a ceremonial presentation.
Kerbel, whose family has been involved since 1949 with the company that went public in 1986, said transportation was one critical consideration for the plant site, which is close to markets in Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Louisville.
Kerbel, who has been president since 1991, said a national decline in the U.S. housing market was not a factor when the company decided to build the new facility two years ago.
“Brick plants are built [to operate] for 35 to 40 years, and we are here for that. A slowdown in the housing market didn’t even enter my mind because I don’t build brick plants for the year that they open,” Kerbel said. “We are always going to have ups and downs in our economy and this is a down, which means it can only get better.
“We settled here and I don’t think we made a mistake. We are pleased to be here,” Kerbel said.
Brad Cobbledick, technical services director for Brampton Brick, said the facility will obtain shale from a quarry immediately adjacent to the plant, extending for 1 mile between County Road 950 North to 1050 North, in Sullivan County.
“There is a 100-year supply of shale,” Cobbledick said, “and it is a very high quality of shale.” The quarry area has about a 20-foot overburden, with 60 feet of shale.
Cobbledick said he first spotted shale in Sullivan County while watching mining operations of Black Beauty Coal Co.
In addition, the brick plant is powered by petroleum coke, a very inexpensive, low-grade fuel. “We saw this technology in Spain. It has a very good cost advantage,” Cobbledick said.
The plant has its own scrubber with a conditioning system that removes sulfur, he added. It also can be fueled by natural gas.
The facility at peak capacity can make 38,000 bricks per hour. Drying time for the bricks is 30 hours, while firing time is 32 hours at a temperature of 1,950 degrees. Total manufacturing time from start to packaging is four to seven days.
“It is a proud day for Sullivan County. It adds jobs and will add to our tax base,” said Sullivan County Commissioner Joe Boes. Sullivan county officials, Boes said, worked to bring the facility to the county, including approval from the Sullivan County Council in October 2006 of a 10-year tax abatement for the new plant.
Brampton Brick Limited has headquarters in Brampton, Ontario.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@
tribstar.com.

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