Slippery Rock Gazette

Rock of Ages Quarry and Swenson Granite Works, LLC

Peter J. Marcucci

Photos Courtesy Polycor

Above: Operations at the Bethel White, Rock of Ages quarry. Rock of Ages and its processing center are regular stops on the MIA Vermont quarry tour.

Above and below: The historic Barre Gray Quarry at the Rock of Ages site. The Smith quarry at Rock of Ages is believed to be the largest operating deep-hole, dimension granite quarry in the world.

The Vermont State Capitol in Montpelier is made of Barre Gray from the quarry located in Barre, Vermont. Both Swenson Granite Works LLC and Rock of Ages are now divisions of Polycor Incorporated, and will retain their names.

The stone industry and Polycor Incorporated have just taken a giant leap forward with the acquisition of the famed Rock of Ages Quarry and Swenson Granite Works, LLC. As a result, these two businesses, purchased from the Swenson family, will remain steady as a rock for decades to come, explains Polycor CEO, Patrick Perus. 

“One of the main reasons we are doing this is because we want to be able to have the deepest, broadest offering of natural stone to our North American clients. When we talk to an architect or to a building owner, we want to have as many color choices available as possible, not just one or two. The second part is that the Swenson operation is truly a beautiful business. It’s very local to New England and we believe in their business model and growth potential nationwide.” 

According to Perus, because the U.S. market growth has been gentle for so many years, there is a lot of catching up to do. “In the construction market (the Swenson side of the equation), cities throughout the U.S. are investing more in their downtown areas to improve the aesthetics and bring back earnings for these cities. These are favorable trends for all natural stone producers. 

“On the monument side (the Rock of Ages side of the equation), the market is also growing, and we are seeing a resurgence of production. The monument industry has had a great year in 2016, and we believe this is not an accident, and that this is a trend as far as domestic production. So I think that the economic environment is favorable for our companies, and we see potential growth increasing over the coming years.”

Polycor was formed by three entrepreneurs in Quebec City, Canada, in 1987, and began with the purchase of a quarry in northern Quebec owned by Polychrome, a company that exported blocks to Japan. During the 1990s, Polycor continued its acquisition of area companies while trying to compete, becoming the largest player in Quebec by the late 1990s.   

“Polycor has a unique history in the stone industry,” continued Perus. It is not a family business like many of our competitors. It has been growing through acquisition, buying one quarry after another. In 2003, we entered the U.S. market with the purchase of the Georgia Marble Company. That’s when I joined, and I was part of Georgia Marble Company. 

With its sights now firmly set on the U.S., Polycor continued its acquisitions by purchasing a medium- size quarry in Virginia (Alberene Soapstone), then a smaller quarry in Oklahoma.    

“We had always wanted to do a big deal in the U.S. and Rock Of Ages and Swenson Granite were always on our radar screen,” continued Perus. “These two quarries are very close to each other, with one in Barre, Vermont, and the other in Concord, New Hampshire. Both are only three to four hours from our own operation in Quebec, so we’ve known each other quite well over the years. We respect them, learned a lot from them, and we’ve known about their competence and their expertise.” 

According to Perus, North American stone is very unique in the market — from their Georgia Marble to Bethel White, Barre Gray, Cambrian Black and Caledonia — all these stones have been widely used throughout the continent.

What will this mean to American consumers? 

“Rock of Ages has nine colors, Polycor has 25 colors, so in total, that’s 34. This means that whoever was buying from Rock of Ages will now have 34 colors to choose from, and whoever was buying from Polycor now has 34. So everyone has a broader choice of colors, and if people are serious about buying American or buying local and supporting local businesses in our industry, I don’t think there is a company anywhere that offers as broad a range as we do, both locally or worldwide. This is the real benefit of this acquisition and why we are doing it.”

A Future Carved in Stone

Perus concluded, “Our future is in North America, and we want to continue to grow in the U.S. and Canada. We are a true North American company, with 800 employees evenly split between American and Canadian. Even the shareholders, when you go back to who owns what, is split approximately 50/50 between American and Canadian. So in every way, we have one foot on each side of the border. This is the biggest acquisition we’ve ever done, and after this we will more than double in size. These quarries have huge reserves. We really can’t say for how long, but we do know that it’s over 100 years. We like to quarry stone and promote it, and we hope that other companies will join our group of companies.”

For more information about Polycor and their products, please visit www.polycor.com .