[06/18/03] Falco Lime Inc., a mainstay at the E.W. Haining Industrial Center for 25 years, will soon be sold to Mississippi Lime Co., but will continue operations and full employment here.

In a joint statement, the two companies said Falco will be acquired by the larger Mississippi Lime, which has its operations in Alton, Ill., and Saint Genevieve and Springfield, Mo. Closing of the deal is expected within the next several weeks.

Lime is a mined mineral with soil-building, construction and processing applications. It is barged up and down the river and trucked from terminals to construction and other sites.

Falco was formed by J. Fred Farrell and Larry L. Lambiotte on June 22, 1978, when the two Arkansas natives bought out Keith Williams Lime. The name Falco was derived from the phrase “Fred and Larry’s company.”

Since 1978, Falco diversified into providing products and services to the construction, paper, water treatment and chemical industries in Mississippi.

Lambiotte said the sale will involve the Falco Lime operations in Vicksburg and Baton Rouge.

Farrell and Lambiotte will retain ownership of Falco Chemical Inc., which deals in chemicals, fertilizer and agricultural lime and other products, and PolyVulc USA, which is in the polymer business making pads for air conditioning installations and for supporting piers in the mobile home industry and manufacturing crumb rubber for a number of industries.

Mississippi Lime officials said the Falco Lime name will be retained and Falco’s 71 employees in Vicksburg and 39 in Baton Rouge will be offered employment with Mississippi Lime or one of the affiliated companies.

“Consolidation has been coming” in the lime industry, Lambiotte said. “We looked for a large family-owned company.”

Mississippi Lime was founded in 1907 as Mississippi Sand Co., in Alton. It later diversified into limestone, lime and similar products.