Wilbert Precast Inc., the 100-year-old Spokane-based concrete-products manufacturer, has bought the assets of Yakima Precast Inc., a concrete-products maker in Yakima, Wash.


Dan Houk, president of Wilbert Precast, says the company completed the acquisition of Yakima Precast, which employed about 27 people, earlier this month. Wilbert has retained all of the Yakima companys employees and now has a total of 112 workers, he says.


Wilbert has operated a plant in Yakima since the early 1980s, and Houk says the Spokane company will build a new facility to accommodate both the recently acquired operation and the established Wilbert plant there.


The company recently bought 15 acres of land in the Yakima area for the new building, which currently is being designed. As envisioned, the new facility would have roughly 22,000 square feet of floor spaceincluding about 18,000 square feet of manufacturing space.


Houk says he doesnt have a cost estimate or a start date for the planned construction project yet, but hopes to have all of the Yakima operations moved into the new facility by next March.


He says the Yakima Precast acquisition gives Wilbert some new lines of concrete products, including retaining walls, prestressed wall panels, and bridge beams, that it hadnt made previously. The only product that Yakima Precast made that Wilbert also makes is underground-utility vaults.


In addition to the underground-utility vaults, Wilbert makes burial vaults, stair steps, and Redi Rock pavers, among other products.


Houk also says that the acquisition gives the Spokane company a number of pieces of heavy equipment that it needs, some of which it had considered buying before Yakima Precasts former owner, Brian Conway, approached Wilbert about a possible acquisition.


Our company has been growing tremendously, and were needing more equipment in a lot of areas, Houk says. A lot of the assets we purchased, we were in need of purchasing anyway.


Houk declines to disclose the terms of the transaction.


Contact Linn Parish at (509) 344-1266 or via e-mail at linnp@spokanejournal.com.