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Florida Crushed Stone may lay off managers; workers worry pay and benefits might change.
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 19, 2000
Whether they've been mining limerock from the earth, trucking it across the state or firing it in a 3,000-degree cement kiln, some employees of Florida Crushed Stone Co. in Brooksville have received a paycheck from the same company for three decades.
All that may change in the next few months if CSR America succeeds in buying Florida Crushed Stone's parent company, FCS Holdings, a plan announced last week after months of rumors about the sale of the business that's been a staple in Hernando County since 1971.
Though the faces at the top may soon change, not much else will, including the company's name, say officials and employees with Florida Crushed Stone and CSR America, based in West Palm Beach and with corporate offices in Australia.
While some say there is uncertainty about the future of some management positions, they agree that almost all employees at the site north of Brooksville will be punching the same clock this time next year.
"I think everyone at the ground level is going to be fine," said Jack Falin, a 12-year hourly employee from Brooksville who oversees operations in the soft-rock division.
"If there are any changes, it's going to be in upper management," he predicted.
While the employees are not worried about layoffs, some are interested in any potential changes to pay scales and benefits, Falin added.
"Any family man is going to be wondering what his insurance is going to be," he said. "It makes or breaks you."
The employees did a little bit of digging on their own about their new owners.
"We tried to find out what we could about the company, about the wages" from the operations at other CSR plants, Falin said. "They got at least equal if not better."
Some of the 400 employees in Brooksville have been asking the same questions of Michael McHugh, local vice president of Florida Crushed Stone.
"Overall, I tell them no one's going to lose anything, I'm sure," McHugh said. But he added that much is still unknown about what the future holds regarding any changes. He has not heard any word about his own position, for instance.
"But I'm not worried. I think things will work out," he said.
The mining and cement operations, though to be under CSR in the future, will keep the name Florida Crushed Stone. But the CP&L power plant, a separate subsidiary of FCS Holdings, will be retained by company founder F. Browne Gregg and his family.
The power plant and the cement kiln will continue to share a control room, certain offices, a pollution control device and a stack, from which emissions are released into the air. CP&L and Florida Crushed Stone currently hold a contract that spells out the details of this relationship. That will be continued in the future between CSR and the power plant, even though some supervision may change.
"There are individual plant managers for cement and power right now," McHugh said. "Both report to me. . . . I don't know how upper management will be structured to deal with those."
The arrangement was set up as an efficient means to run both operations, as the power plant generates heat and materials used in cement making. Though McHugh and CSR officials have said there will not be any major changes after a takeover, John Bermudez, a cement industry analyst with Merrill Lynch in New York, said CSR may need to cut some aspects of the business after agreeing to pay a healthy $348-million for it.
"I would believe that the management on Florida Crushed Stone side, on the administrative side, is probably at risk here," he said. "We're talking about the headquarters for Florida Crushed Stone (in Leesburg)," not Brooksville, he said.
Though he doesn't recall many large changes at Rinker Materials Corp. when CSR bought that company in 1988, Bermudez said they are not rare. Calls to Rinker's operations in Miami-Dade County were referred back to CSR headquarters.
"I would just say, look, it's not unusual for changes to take place once someone comes in new," Bermudez added. Given the size of the purchase price, he predicted that CSR might sell some parts of Florida Crushed Stone, such as the trucking business, to make up for the cost.
Keith Carew, vice president of strategy and development for CSR, said all aspects of the company will be reviewed after the purchase is final.
"All components of the business need to pay their way," Carew said. "If it's not paying its way, we would question whether to retain it. But we haven't bought Florida Crushed Stone to sell large chunks of it."