Polycor Purchases Georgia Marble Co.

TATE, Ga. – Georgia Marble Co. will continue here in the stone business, after all.
Polycor, a Quebec-based dimensional-stone supplier, acquired the historic marble operation in early September from French mineral and building-supply conglomerate Imerys. Financial details were not released.
Paris-based Imerys, restructured its Dimension Stone Division (Specialty Minerals Business Group) earlier this year and, as a result, sold its Central Granite facility in Elberton, Ga., and closed the Nelson, Ga., marble facility.
Polycor now will retain the existing employee base at the Tate plant with the name Georgia Marble – Dimension Stone under a license agreement with Imerys. Polycor is currently the second-largest supplier of structural dimensional stone in North America.
Patrick Perus, formerly head of Imerys’ Dimension Stone Division, is now president of Polycor’s dimension stone business in the United States. David King, previously regional sales manager under Imerys, will continue his management position with Polycor. Jay Kown will once again head Georgia Marble Memorial Sales.
“Polycor has an ambitious growth plan to improve overall competitiveness of the business. It also has the best expertise in North America to help us improve our operations,” Perus says. “With the strong synergies between our new Georgia Marble Company – Dimension Stone and Polycor’s existing business, we will have the ability to offer customers a broader product line, including Polycor granites..
“Structural marble from Georgia will also be widely available through selected partners in the United States specialized in the fabrication of custom-made monuments. We are all very excited about this new opportunity to further the long tradition of Georgia Marble.”
Georgia Marble became a veiled target of Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colorado) earlier this year over the French government’s reluctance to support the military action in Iraq and the Imerys-owned company supplying grave markers for U.S. military cemeteries from the Tate facility. The congressman wrote a well-publicized letter to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs protesting purchases from Imerys, but received no other official support for his position.