The history of The Hope Concrete Company is kind of a long story. It goes back over sixty years and encompasses changes in the name, the locations, and the size of operation, but the ethics and ideals that are the foundation of Hope Concrete Co. remain constant.
In 1961, Mr. Clinton E. Hope established Bonham Concrete Company to serve the Fannin County area’s ready mixed concrete needs. Starting with 3 trucks, and with the help of his sons, Jerry, Tommy, and Gerald, Mr. Hope soon expanded his operations to include a sand plant in southern Oklahoma, Bryan County Sand and Gravel, as well as a concrete batch plants in Greenville, Commerce, and later in Paris, Texas. In time, the batch plants located outside Bonham were sold, and in 1980, our location in the Sherman/ Denison area was established as Hope Concrete Company. Eventually, Mr. Hope retired to raising cattle (if that could be considered retirement) and left the operation of the concrete business to his sons, and grandson, Mike Corzine. In 2010, after growing up in and spending many years in the business, Gerald Hope decided to sell the operation to another group of folks whose families had been in the concrete business going back to the early 1940’s.
Backing up a few years……
The current operators of Hope Concrete Co. trace their origins to Wichita Falls, Texas, circa 1946. It was then that Thomas C. Foley and his partners Jack D. Foley (no relation) and John Gavin started the Wichita Sand and Gravel Company. Wichita Sand & Gravel (WS&G) grew by adding manpower and equipment and became the premier concrete supplier to the rapidly expanding oil boomtown of Wichita Falls.
WS&G began operations receiving cement by rail and loading the sacks by hand into the mixer truck. WS&G also had sand and gravel plants and, with the help of the Halliburton Company of Duncan, Oklahoma, reportedly operated the first pneumatic cement storage and handling facility west of the Mississippi River. The first trucks used to deliver concrete included used 1942 International R-900 trucks equipped with 2 cubic yard Jaeger transit mixers.
In 1960, WS&G was purchased by the Gifford-Hill Company of Dallas, but continued to be operated for a number of years by T.C. Foley and Jack Foley. In time, T.C. Foley and Jack Foley had the chance to purchase their primary competitor in Wichita Falls, the C.C. Pitts Company. Based in Wichita Falls, the C.C. Pitts Company had many ready mix concrete batch plants in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma, including Altus, Lawton, Hollis, Wichita Falls, Burkburnett and Bowie. This purchase created City Concrete, Inc.
City Concrete, Inc., sold the smaller and mostly unprofitable satellite operations and retained the Wichita Falls plants. In 1974, T.C. Foley sold Plant no. 2, on the north side of Wichita Falls near the then rapidly expanding Sheppard Air Force Base, to longtime friend and business associate, Arthur H. Litteken. From this sale, the OK Concrete Company was formed and with Mr. Litteken’s guidance, the company continues to thrive today. Around the same time, City Concrete, Inc. moved from the old C.C. Pitts location to a new location with easy access to all of the major arteries in town.
In 1976, T.C. Foley and Jack Foley sold their interest in the company to Paul and John Foley, sons of T.C. Foley. In 1980, Paul, John, and Arthur Litteken expanded their operations with a concrete plant in Bowie and serviced several other projects with portable concrete plants.
Things went very well until the oil bust in 1984, at which time the plant in Bowie was sold and business in general slowed down in much of Texas. Around this time, John Foley left the business for a ranch in West Texas, where he operated in sheep and goat country.
Meanwhile, Arthur Litteken’s sons, Art and David had joined him in the concrete business and with their help began expanding his company outside of Wichita Falls. In 1989, OK Concrete Company purchased M & M Ready Mix in Vernon and Childress. A couple of years later, the Seymour plant was purchased from Strickland Bridge Company and in 1997, the Windthorst plant was added. Over time, OK added plants in Jacksboro, Memphis, and Shamrock.
In the early 1990’s, Paul’s sons, Tim and Jim Foley joined him in the business. This brought expansion in the form of portable central mix paving plants and a new ready mixed operation in the Rhome/ Roanoke area of Dallas/ Fort Worth. Beginning in the mid 1990’s, City Concrete played a part in large highway and subdivision projects in the DFW area and through the ready mix plant, supplied a great deal of the TxDOT bridge structure concrete throughout the northwest part of the DFW metroplex.
In about 2005, David Litteken purchased the remainder of the business from his family and is the current president of OK Concrete Company, which is headquartered in Wichita Falls and operates 8 plants throughout Northwest Texas.
Continuing a tradition of successful joint ventures with each other, the Foleys and Littekens purchased the Hope Concrete Company from Gerald Hope in August of 2010. Tim Foley moved to Sherman, and with the help of previous owners Gerald Hope and Mike Corzine, began to operate Hope Concrete Company.
In the Summer of 2014, City Concrete, Inc. exited the ready mixed concrete business in the Wichita Falls market. Paul Foley remains the president of City Concrete, Inc., which continues to support all of the ready mix concrete plants outside Wichita Falls and operate portable batch plants throughout the State of Texas and beyond.
Hope Concrete Co. is now part of a 12 plant system, and able to benefit from the deeper pool of resources and equipment that comes from such a venture. By making this commitment, the Foleys and the Littekens are able to take what C.E. Hope and his sons had built, and ensure the legacy of C.E. Hope, T.C. Foley, and Arthur H. Litteken remains alive for a new generation of people. Over all these years – one constant remains – our people. What separates us from others is our people, whom are outstanding and continue to operate with the ethics and ideals that T.C. Foley started with in 1946, and C.E. Hope in 1961.