Construction Partners acquires Piedmont Paving, adding a Newnan asphalt plant and more than 110 employees to its Georgia platform

Following our coverage of Construction Partners’ acquisition of S.E. Cline Construction in Florida, the public civil infrastructure buyer has added another Southeast contractor. Construction Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROAD) announced on November 4 that it has acquired Piedmont Paving, Inc. of Newnan, Georgia. The Atlanta-area site development and asphalt paving business brings a hot-mix asphalt plant and more than 110 employees into The Scruggs Company, CPI’s Georgia platform. No purchase price was disclosed.

The asset.

Piedmont provides site development and asphalt paving for public and private projects in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Its Newnan office is at 1226 Highway 16 East. The company’s website describes a business founded in 2006 with the ability to self-perform the site-work process from clearing and grading through asphalt paving.

Its listed capabilities include erosion control, excavation and underground utilities, milling and asphalt overlays, soil-cement stabilization, concrete flatwork, base and asphalt paving, and striping. The scope spans the preparation below the pavement as well as the finished surface.

The Georgia fit.

“This transaction expands Scruggs’ operations along the Interstate 85 corridor between Columbus and Atlanta, a rapidly growing region with strong public and private infrastructure demand,” said Fred J. (Jule) Smith, III, CPI’s President and Chief Executive Officer. That characterization of regional growth and demand is management’s assessment.

Smith said Piedmont’s Newnan plant, experienced workforce and established customer relationships complement Scruggs’ existing operations and enhance its ability to serve west-central Georgia. CPI’s November 4 acquisition announcement is also furnished as Exhibit 99.2 to its SEC Form 8-K with a November 4 report date, signed November 5.

An operating plant, not just a permitted site.

The comparison with Cline is useful. CPI’s October 19 announcement described approximately 60 Cline employees and a rail-served, permitted hot-mix asphalt plant site in Bunnell joining C.W. Roberts Contracting, its Florida platform. CPI characterized that site as an opportunity for future vertical integration.

Piedmont brings an existing hot-mix asphalt plant in Newnan, alongside more than 110 employees. Both transactions add site development capabilities to regional paving platforms, but the plant assets are different: a permitted site in the Cline deal versus an operating plant in the Piedmont acquisition.

What it means.

For civil, utility and paving owners, these two acquisitions show the range of assets CPI is adding through its regional companies: field crews, site development capabilities and asphalt infrastructure. The relevant comparison is the operating scope and physical assets, not an assumed transaction multiple. Neither announcement disclosed a purchase price, revenue or EBITDA for the acquired contractor.