Garmor

Asbury’s esteemed founder passed in 1937, and Riddle’s son assumed responsibility for the business, as well as the postmaster position for the office operating out of the Asbury site. Instead, Asbury engaged a different tactic, achieving growth by acquiring strategically located companies to expand geographically. As a result, Asbury grew on a number of fronts. In 1968, Asbury bought a graphite mill located in Bloomsbury, New Jersey, which paid dividends when the nearby Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was destroyed by fire and needed the large, long-term supply of the graphite Bloomsbury produced. Asbury also added to its Mexican mining assets, acquiring a 25 percent stake in Grafitos Mexicanos, the largest graphite mine in the country. A year later, Asbury diversified, buying a glue manufacturer and extender in the state of Washington, later selling when determined to be too much of a departure from its core focus. Asbury was able to broaden its mission with the 1976 acquisition of Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based Anthracite Industries, which processed non-graphite carbon products, ground anthracite, metallurgical coke, calcined petroleum coke, and the amorphous graphites typically used to add carbon content to steel. Next, the company created Asbury Graphite of California in the 1980s, acquiring Fluxmaster, Inc., a Clearfield, Utah-based flux manufacturer for the aluminum and foundry markets.