In 1996 Roy and Kim Frazier acquired the design and patents of the Weber Black Beauty and Weber Silver Beauty vibratory screeds from Weber Concrete Tools of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Roy Frazier was the leading sales producer for Weber prior to acquiring the business. The Frazier’s relocated the business to their home city in Hendersonville, Tennessee and it became Advanced Concrete Tools, Inc.

Doug Weber, who continues to work as a concrete contractor today, developed the Weber Black Beauty and Weber Silver Beauty products and filed the first patent for a vibratory screed in the United States. He also developed and patented the Equilateral Triangle Bar which will not bend or warp and is capable of consolidating, leveling, and bump cutting near cured concrete. The rights to the original patents filed by Mr. Weber are held by Advanced Concrete Tools today.

In 2004 Roy Frazier tragically died from a heart attack. This forced his wife Kim into the unfamiliar role of managing the business alone. Kim retrenched, paid down debt and began to seek ways to transition the business.

Herman Beach and Darwin Gilmore acquired the assets of ACT from Ms. Frazier in July 2007.

Beach and Gilmore were conducting an extensive search for a manufacturing business that would be complementary to Manown Engineering, Mr. Gilmore’s precision machining and fabrication business located in Bonifay, Florida.

In order to effectively capture the synergies and business diversification benefits between the two businesses a decision was made to relocate ACT into the Manown Engineering facility in Bonifay. This transition was completed in August 2007. All machining and fabrication and support services have been brought in house and are performed at the ISO 9001-9002 registered facility in Bonifay, Florida. Both businesses are maintained completely separate from a financial and accounting standpoint.

Mr. Gilmore serves as President and COO of Advanced Concrete Tools and President and CEO of Manown Engineering.

Manown Engineering

Manown Engineering was founded in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida in 1965. It began as a business providing precision oil burner and related components to the electrical utility and maritime industries.

In 1974 the business relocated to Bonifay, Florida. It maintained its core oil burner product line business and expanded into producing machined components for manufacturers engaged in industrial AC motors, industrial laundry equipment, aerospace, agriculture, pump and compressor systems and off shore oil exploration.

Darwin Gilmore joined Manown as President and equity partner In Jan 2001. In Jan 2005 he acquired 100% ownership.

Darwin led development and implementation of a quality management system that has been assessed and registered by the Quality Management Institute to ISO9002-1994 since January 2002.

Manown possesses outstanding long tenured talent on both manual and CNC equipment, in welding, as well as an experienced quality assurance effort.

Manown is located in the Bonifay community in Holmes County, Florida, a traditionally rural agricultural area and is classified as a HUB zone business by the Small Business Administration.

Advanced Concrete Tools, Inc.

ACT’s total focus is on products for the concrete finisher. Our commitment is to build screeds that provide clear performance and reliability advantages to the end user, that are easy and profitable to sell by our dealers.

Our primary customer target for the Black Beauty is the concrete finishing professional who is striving to achieve consistent results and productivity across a broad range of job requirements. The rental segment is a key target for the Silver Beauty, a lower cost product to meet the needs of the smaller contractor and the DIY user.

In addition to Manown capabilities our staff possesses extensive product development and manufacturing backgrounds in highly complex electro-mechanical products. We have access to outstanding product development resources capable of rapid transition from concept to full production.

We are strongly committed to maintaining product leadership, continuing to refine our existing products, expanding our model line to better serve the broad market domestically and internationally and adding niche products to enhance our product lines importance to our distribution.