The building materials industry is rapidly evolving and shifting. The demand for sustainable materials is increasing and new technologies are being introduced at a record pace. Our employees and our customers both face similar challenges in staying on top of new trends and developments in their businesses.

At Heidelberg Materials, our teams are comprised of some of the best and brightest in the industry and we have access to a broad range of technical resources across the globe. We are pleased to be able to leverage the knowledge and experience of our team members to provide learning opportunities and training events to our employees and customers to help them achieve their goals and be more successful at what they do.

One such example is the Customer Concrete School in our Midwest Region. In 2004, the Midwest Region Technical Services team launched the school to cover the basics of cement and concrete and provide technical information and troubleshooting tips.

Over the years, it has grown to include customers from all states within the Midwest and now incorporates more advanced technical topics and hands-on training at the concrete laboratory in the Mitchell, Indiana, cement plant. These three-day training events serve as a great learning experience for our customers and provide an opportunity for our technical experts to get to know and interact with our customers. The program recently hosted its 50th session.

“We’ve trained more than 750 people who then return to their roles in ready mix and precast concrete, where they employ what they’ve learned in our school to make their companies more successful,” said Mike Collins, Technical Services Manager for Heidelberg Material North America’s Midwest Region. “These schools continue to be a major customer outreach initiative in the Midwest, and we regularly receive extremely positive feedback from the participants and their respective companies.”

Stay tuned next week for a great example of an educational event for our employees as we cover our annual “Tech Week” that was recently held at our state-of-the-art cement plant in Mitchell, Indiana.

The Midwest Region's Customer Concrete School Hosts 50th Session
(from L-R: Mike Collins, Technical Services Manager & Greg Isom, Sr. QC Supervisor)