HELP: Concrete grass roots startup

[TEXA$$TEEL]

So I am looking at purchasing a Mobil concrete mixing plant back home and am looking for someone with experience owning preferably or operating such facilities.... I’ve got a lot of questions and thought I’d reach out to our group and see if anyone had knowledge on the subject or knew someone who does

This is purely an investment opportunity for me as I am not at all experienced with the concrete business.... just thought I’d reach out and see if anyone would share their good decisions and bad experiences with me so I hopefully can avoid the rookie mistakes

 

[oneshot86]

wow, cool.
good luck

 

[alpine44]

So I am looking at purchasing a Mobil concrete mixing plant back home and am looking for someone with experience owning preferably or operating such facilities.... I’ve got a lot of questions and thought I’d reach out to our group and see if anyone had knowledge on the subject or knew someone who does

This is purely an investment opportunity for me as I am not at all experienced with the concrete business.... just thought I’d reach out and see if anyone would share their good decisions and bad experiences with me so I hopefully can avoid the rookie mistakes

I assume you mean "mobile concrete plant".

The issue I had on several small construction projects with the big "Ready mix" trucks were:
-sometimes you need so little concrete that the delivery fee cannot be justified
-often you need several small batches but the trucks are in a hurry and want to dump everything at once
-sometimes you cannot get the big trucks to the site

So anything between a big "Ready mix" truck and a construction site mixer with some bags of "Sakrete" would find a niche.

If I were you, I would drive around and ask the people working on construction projects what would make their lives easier.
In parallel, get volume pricing for cement and aggregate and run the numbers for your margin compared to "Ready mix".

PS: Can you post a link of the machinery you have in mind.

 

[eca7891]

Hmmmm....

This may not be helpful but.

Best advice I have been given is don’t invest in something you don’t understand.

If you don’t have experience in that industry I would stay way away from it.

 

[MtnCreek]

About the only time I see a small plant setup on a project is when there is a lot of demo that can be recycled into new concrete. Something like a concrete interstate hwy being demo'ed and repaved w/ concrete. That also involves a crusher and screens.

My statement is worth exactly what you paid for it...

 

[alpine44]

Hmmmm....

This may not be helpful but.

Best advice I have been given is don’t invest in something you don’t understand.

If you don’t have experience in that industry I would stay way away from it.

It would be sad if Elon Musk had taken that advice. He realized that:

• Rockets are much more expensive to the taxpayer than they need to be.
• Tons of payload need to go into orbit while the Space Shuttle is retiring.

Elon cranked the numbers, saw the opportunity, and started a company in a field he knew nothing about. He found the right partners/employees, now makes billions and saves the taxpayer billions.

Concrete is not exactly rocket science. So, run the numbers honestly, get a good read on the market potential, and go from there. You can always hire specific domain expertise if needed.

 

[MrSmith]

What equipment will be needed to get the concrete from your batch plant to and into your customers forms. Who provides it? Is it available and, if small batches, cost effective when compared to the short load charge from the Redi Mix suppliers?

Mobile plants can mean anything from a drum on a trailer that is "batched" at your local supplier, pulled behind your pickup to where it needs to go, placed and then the trailer cleaned and returned up to a plant capable of hundreds of yards per hour.

Are you prepared to eat the cost of any bad batches?

Post #3 has good thoughts.

Real specification concrete is way more than dumping stuff in a drum and mixing it up. It is a complex, technology driven business.

I have been around concrete construction for over 40 years and the only thing I am sure of is that I don't like concrete and I don't like very many people that do like concrete.

Good luck!

Thank you,
MrSmith

 

[eca7891]

It would be sad if Elon Musk had taken that advice. He realized that:

• Rockets are much more expensive to the taxpayer than they need to be.
• Tons of payload need to go into orbit while the Space Shuttle is retiring.

Elon cranked the numbers, saw the opportunity, and started a company in a field he knew nothing about. He found the right partners/employees, now makes billions and saves the taxpayer billions.

If you feel that your intellect and capital funding is on par with Mr Elon then this may be relevant.

Concrete is not exactly rocket science.

This is NOT a completely accurate statement.

Real specification concrete is way more than dumping stuff in a drum and mixing it up. It is a complex, technology driven business.

^^^^ Truth. This is an accurate statement. A local concrete company has a “ lab “ on site. The guy running it is called the mad scientist of concrete.

With that said.

If you can finance this with someone else’s money ( some you don’t mind lose no a relationship with or preferably don’t have any type of friendship with) you could try it.

Or

If you can afford to lose all the money if would take for you to try this out and it not impact your life.

If the above applies to you and you are still interested in it then by all means go for it

 

[Greg Langelius *]

When we send those first slaphappy martian wannabes up to the Big Red One, they're be riding the latest Spacex/Tesla.

Elon is not a dumb boy by my assessment..

 

[TEXA$$TEEL]

This will be for residential use mostly as the plant is located in a coastal community where concrete is used to tie pilings together underneath the home for a foundation. The concept of concrete not being “rocket science” is what got me here I guess but with that being said im not at s point in my life for a non-profit company ?.... that being said I’m just trying to do my due diligence by trying to reach out to industry professionals for advise. I will try to get some pictures of the equipment that is being used currently (equipment for sale) and hopefully that will help shed light on my questions