Material Service Corporation

Material Service Corporation "was founded in 1919 by three brothers - Henry, Sol, and Irving Crown. At that time, there were 80 sand and gravel companies operating in the highly competitive, major market of Chicago, and Material Service ranked last. The Company owned no sources of raw material and only had a single distribution point - a 50' x 100' lot on the north side of Chicago. Over the years, the Crowns acquired or developed production facilities, especially those near water to take advantage of low cost barge transportation. We are now a leading producer of aggregate materials in the Chicago area."

In 2006 "Hanson PLC, the international building materials company, announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Material Service Corporation (‘Material Service’) from General Dynamics Corporation (NYSE GD) for $300 million (approximately £160m) in cash.

"Agreement to acquire Material Service was announced on March 2, 2006. The acquisition is expected to be earnings enhancing for Hanson in the first full year of ownership and will be financed from existing resources.

"Material Service is the thirteenth largest producer of aggregates in the United States and will be managed within Hanson Aggregates North America. Employing more than 800 people in Illinois and western Indiana, it sold over 20 million US tons of aggregates in 2005 and is estimated to have approximately 1.5 billion tons of aggregate reserves. Material Service was established in 1919 by the Crown family and Mr. Lester Crown will remain in his current capacity as Chairman of Material Service."