J-III Concrete builds on a solid foundation

Family is the backbone of J-III Concrete, according to A.C. Cuellar III.   His father A. C. Cuellar  Jr. started the south Weslaco company in 1992.  His uncle Erasmo Cuellar runs the sales side and keeps customers happy, while his two aunts, a sister and a brother help him on the administrative side of J-III Concrete which has 62 employees.

“We’re fortunate to have good team,” said Cuellar , who is now the growing ready-mix concrete business’s operations manager.    The company’s founder may have passed control for day-to-day operations to his son, but he is still actively involved.  “My father is a little more relaxed now.  He consults with me about how things are going,” Cuellar said.

J-III Concrete has pursued steady expansion almost from its second year of operation, first opening a ready mix plant in San Benito, then additional sites in Edinburg, Sullivan City and most recently in Brownsville.   “It’s made possible,” Cuellar said, “by the good mix of talents and personalities.  Our success is part hard work, luck and the good timing of when we came into the market.  A lot of our success is due to day-in, day-out attention to details.  Keeping the trucks clean makes us look more professional.  When we came into the concrete business, not too much emphasis was put on a clean truck in the concrete business, so we set ourselves apart.”

Cuellar himself didn’t expect to go into the concrete business. He was getting a biology degree when his father launched JIII.  Although the younger Cuellar  was intending to go to dental school, he agreed to work with the family for a year after he got his degree and got a big surprise.  “I liked it.  More than anything else, I liked making things work.  I like creating systems for dispatching and procedures that make the business flow better.  On the management side, I liked getting people to work together,” he said.

J-III Concrete’s central Valley has been beneficial for its growth.  Fifteen years ago, the bigger concrete companies had established themselves in McAllen and Brownsville, and J-III had plenty of business in the Mid-Valley.  But when those two cities started booming, JIII was in the right place to begin sending concrete trucks to both towns and surrounding areas, gaining new customers with superior service. The business formed a sister company called  J-III Trucking, which only transports J-III concrete.  It  has 20 employees.     

J-III has partnered with a Corpus Christi ready-mix company which has two plants and 25 trucks and meanwhile is on the lookout for additional Valley sites.  Cuellar said J-III is searching for locations that are zoned for a ready-mix operation and also easy for trucks to get into and out of. 

“I just hope we can continue growing with the Valley,” he said.  Besides expanding into other locations, J-III will be growing its Weslaco headquarters larger in the future.