General Shale to close brick plant, will retain shipping yard

Published 12:08 am Wednesday, February 5, 2025

By Elisabeth Strillacci

EAST SPENCER  — After 125 years in business as a brick plant, what is now General Shale brick will cease operations on April 1, with a loss of 65 jobs.

The Tennesse-based General Shale bought Meridian Brick plant in 2021, and announced at the beginning of February that it would close “due to shifts in economic conditions, which has led to a sustained decline in demand for the products manufactured at this facility.” The company explained their reason for closing in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) to the N.C. Department of Commerce.

George Isenhour founded the company Isenhour Brick and Tile in East Spencer in 1896, and that company operated for a full century before it was bought by Boral Bricks. Meridian Brick purchase the company in 2017, and it was sold for the last time in 2021.

When General Shale purchased Meridian, the company posted the following on its website: “October 6, 2021, General Shale completed an industry milestone acquisition of Meridian Brick which officially established General Shale as the largest producer of clay brick and sustainable building materials in North America. In tandem with the acquisition, the company announced a new brand strategy which effectively would dissolve the original Meridian framework, and introduce three new brands along with allocating existing resources to legacy General Shale locations, strengthening existing brands.”

Calls to the company had not been returned as of press time, but Town Manager Michael Douglas said the town was aware of the closing.

“General Shale has been a valued member of the community and a valued partner for the town for many, many years, and we are of course very sad they have decided to cease operations,” said Douglas. “Whenever the town called on them, for the park, for schools, for whatever the project was, they were always there, and in truth, they are East Spencer.”

Douglas did say the town has been in the planning stages for a municipal complex and General Shale had verbally agreed to donate the brick. With their closing, “we will have to look elsewhere,” he said.

He said employees have received packages in the closure, and the company does allow, based on seniority, for workers to “bump” others at other sites if they wish to continue their employment. There is no union, however.

And the town will not completely lose in the close of operations, because the company is not putting the property up for sale.

“The town will still receive property taxes, and it is my understanding that they will maintain the facility as a shipping yard. There is supposed to be a skeleton crew of about six that will remain to operate that.”

General Shale remains a healthy company with other locations in North Carolina. According to the company’s website, “throughout the U.S. and Canada, General Shale operates 28 manufacturing locations, in addition to a network of 26 General Shale-branded retail showrooms and over 200 affiliated distributors across North America. In 1999, General Shale grew even stronger when it joined Wienerberger AG of Vienna, Austria, the world’s largest brick manufacturer.”