Invest Like A Billionaire By Owning… Gravel Pits?
Have you ever heard of Henry Crown?
He was a Chicago industrialist who borrowed $10,000 to start a business called Material Service Corporation. This company sold gravel, sand, and lime to construction companies.
Material Service Corporation was founded in 1919.
By 1951, Material Service Corporation was so successful that Crown bought the Empire State Building. From there, Crown continued expanding his business, eventually acquiring a majority stake in defense contractor General Dynamics.
Today, the Crowns remain one of the wealthiest families in America. All from that initial investment into a gravel pit.
Gravel, known as “aggregate” if you want to use its fancy industry term, is a notoriously lucrative business. And gravel pits have a surprisingly wide-moat since gravel is expensive to transport, meaning there’s very little geopolitical competition.
While all the major tech companies around the world compete over AI or try to make the next Netflix, builders and municipal governments are stuck buying aggregate from whatever gravel pit is closest to them.
Which is why today’s article examines three publicly traded gravel stocks.
