Acme Brick Company has announced that Ed Watson is the new Executive Vice President – Operations, in charge of all sales and production operations as well as Supply Chain and Environmental, Health and Safety.
David Michie has been promoted to Vice President of Production, and will be responsible for all brick production and mining operations, as well as Engineering and Research & Production Services.
Watson joined Featherlite Building Products, an affiliated Acme Brick Company, in 1983 as the plant engineer of the Ranger Lightweight Aggregate plant, before moving to the Texas Quarries division as general manager in 1988.
In 1996, he was promoted to a regional manager of Featherlite, responsible for all production and sales at several locations before becoming the general production manager of Featherlite in 1999 when those operations were merged into Acme Brick Company.
In early 2003 he was promoted to Assistant Vice President of Production at Acme and Vice President of Production in 2004. Two years later he was named Senior Vice President of Production for the company.
Watson will report directly to Acme President and CEO Dennis Knautz. Acme’s Senior Vice Presidents of Sales and the Vice President of Production will report to Watson.
“Ed has proven to be an outstanding manager since assuming the critical role of Senior Vice President of Production in 2006. There is no more important or challenging job at Acme Brick Company. His leadership skills will now be put to use in more areas of our company. I have every confidence that he will continue his traditional commitment to excellence in this newly expanded role,” Knautz said in the announcement,
Michie joined Acme Brick Company in 1985 as a management trainee at the company’s Denton, Texas, brick plant. He was quickly promoted to packaging supervisor within a year and by 1993 was named Processing Superintendent at the plant. A year later he was promoted to Plant Manager of Acme’s McQueeney, Texas, brick plant. His next promotion in 1997 was to Arkansas Regional Production Manager.
In 2006 Michie became Acme’s Assistant General Production Manager over all the company’s brick plants. Two years later he rose to become General Production Manager of Acme.
Michie will report directly to Watson.
“I have known David for 36 years, and have worked very closely with him for the last 18 of those years. He has performed every task that Acme has asked of him with skill and enthusiasm. David has also earned the respect of our plant associates at every level. He has also forged very strong relationships with our sales leadership,” Watson said. “David is a great brick-maker, and Acme’s brick production facilities couldn’t be placed in more capable hands.”
Acme Brick Company was founded in 1891, is headquartered in Fort Worth and will be celebrating its 130th year in business later this year. Acme operates in 13 states across the Southwest and Southeast, and has been a Berkshire Hathaway company since 2000.