Steady leadership helps The Belden Brick Co. to 133 years in business

 
The Belden Brick Co. is the sixth largest manufacturer of bricks in the U.S. by production volume and the country’s largest family-owned-and-managed brick company. With a 133-year history, it’s also one of the oldest companies in Stark County and employs the fifth generation of Beldens.
“Our motto is that we’re the standard of comparison since 1885,” says CEO Robert F. Belden. “We try to live up to that every day to make sure that we’re providing the very best product and the very best service we can.”
Since its inception, the company has survived massive fluctuations in market conditions that have reshaped the competitive landscape. Many families in the brick-making industry sold their companies. Other than Acme Brick, owned by Berkshire Hathaway and one of the biggest players in the field, others in the industry are, for the most part, owned by foreign entities. Because of this, growth, in terms of acquisitions, is not easy.
Nonetheless, Robert says the company is opportunistic in its approach to acquisitions, and has explored every brick operation that has been for sale for the past 35 years. It bought Redland Brick Co. and its three locations outside of Pittsburgh, in Connecticut and Maryland, in 1996; and in 2011, acquired the assets of Lawrenceville Brick, a Virginia-based company, which it folded into the Redland entity.
Feeling the impact
One market ripple still being felt in the company was caused by the recent recession. Belden’s product mix had typically been around 55 percent nonresidential and 35 percent residential. But as the effects of the recession reverberated through the market, Belden’s mix shifted to 80 percent nonresidential as the rate of new residences being built collapsed.