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Cousins Sell off Another Ritchie Business
Cornejo & Sons acquires C&D Recyclers.
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Carrie Rengers
Wichita Eagle
Cousins sell off another Ritchie business
Tom Ritchie and his cousin, Hale Ritchie, continue to divest themselves of businesses and real estate.
"What we're going to do is get out of active... businesses requiring employees," Tom Ritchie says. "I'm just kind of finishing things up, getting them to where they don't require a whole lot of effort."
Most recently, he sold C&D Recyclers to competitor CDR Construction Demolition & Recycling.
CDR's Marty Cornejo says the company can use another landfill since it uses them for more than its own construction and demolition debris. It's also open to the public and has major clients such as Waste Management and Waste Connections.
"We take in a lot from the outside," he says.
In the event of catastrophes like tornadoes and ice storms, Cornejo says the landfills "come in real handy."
Ritchie Cos., which has been in Wichita since 1917, has been selling various parts of its business for the past several years.
Two years ago it sold its concrete, asphalt, aggregates and paving companies to Lafarge North America. A couple of years before that, it sold its Rich-Mix Products.
"It was time to sell," Tom Ritchie says.
He'd eventually like to sell the company headquarters at 2872 N. Ridge Road, part of which J.P.Weigand & Sons now leases.
There are also about 50 acres near there that are on the market.
"It's a pretty valuable piece of property," Ritchie says.
The Ritchies also own 1,800 acres near Severy, where there is rock mining.
"It's valuable real estate to somebody -- not in my lifetime," Tom Ritchie says. The Ritchies are keeping the acreage for now, but Tom Ritchie says, "If someone wants to buy it from us, I suppose we'd sell it in a shot."
He says through the years, government regulations made it increasingly difficult to do business.
"It just wasn't as much fun as it used to be," Ritchie says.
But he adds, "It's been a good ride, and I've enjoyed it. We worked pretty hard at it and earned it."
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