Acme Brick Company is celebrating Acme's 116th year in a really big way - in fact over 6,000 pounds big. On July 4th at 6:00 a.m. the staff of Acme's Denton, Texas brick plant "delivered" Baby Clay, certified the World's largest brick by Guinness World RecordsTM. Several hundred people will be on hand this Friday, September 28, at the Denton plant at 220 E. Daniels to wish Clay bon voyage. On Monday, October 1st Clay will be at Acme's Euless, Texas sales office, 801 Airport Freeway at noon and at 4:00p.m., October 1st at Acme's Headquarters, 2821 W. Seventh Street in Fort Worth.
This "Baby" sets all kinds of records because he weighs in at over three tons and is 116 inches long (9 ft., 8 in.) - one inch for every year that Acme has been in business. That makes Clay nearly 3,000 times the size of a standard brick. Baby Clay proudly bears the Acme logo that is carved into the end of the brick. Acme's residential brick products and Baby Clay are America's only "branded" brick!
Acme President and CEO Dennis Knautz said, "The creation of Clay demonstrates exceptional expertise among our brick making staff. This was a huge, unprecedented challenge for them. It seems fitting that one of America's oldest, and the World's largest American-owned brick company should produce the World's largest brick to commemorate Acme's116 years in business."
The newborn was named Clay because he is comprised of clay materials from each of Acme's 23 brick plants around the Southwest. This giant brick measures 39 inches tall and 39 inches wide.
Baby Clay is Acme's fifth attempt to create this world record brick. The first four attempts, beginning in September 2004, were tremendous learning experiences for the determined brick makers. The crew made adjustments and the fifth time was the charm. Acme's Denton plant required 13 months to create Baby Clay compared to the normal time of a week for a normal brick. "I think that the successful birth of Baby Clay also says something about the traditional American values of hard work and persistence as demonstrated by Harland Dixson (Acme's plant manager), Mack Wilcox, our project manager, and his crew", said company President, Knautz.
During October and November, Baby Clay will log nearly 7,000 miles and visit all 67Acme offices and plants in Texas and 7 adjacent states as the company celebrates its 116th year in business. A special trailer has been created to accommodate the newborn in his travels. It is anticipated that Clay will be making a number of "guest" appearances in other venues as well. A complete schedule of Clay's appearances can be found on the Acme web site at brick.com. Acme Brick, the World's largest American-owned brick company was established April 17, 1891 near Fort Worth, Texas. Acme and its affiliated building products companies are part of Berkshire Hathaway headed by famed investor Warren Buffett.
Images of Baby Clay are available at
www.brick.com/bigbrick . Local contacts for Acme are: Denton, Harland Dixson 940-387-5804; Euless, Rusty Haile 817-835-0142 and Fort Worth, Ron Taylor 817-377-1042.