As American Eagle Ready Mix marks its 10th anniversary, founder Doug Clements' competitive nature and drive to succeed has the company well-positioned for future success. 

By Bradley Fullmer

50 Years of Working Hard
Began as a Young Boy

Clements grew up in Midvale and started earning money during summer breaks from school starting at age 8, earning $1 per hour working for a friend's dad who owned Blako Construction. He performed gopher-like chores like tying rebar, stocking materials, and assisting framers. 

Growing up in a family of modest means, he said he consistently worked 40-hour weeks, which produced a welcome $40 paycheck, money he used to buy his own clothes and generally support himself in his youth. If he and his friend worked hard and performed well, the crew boss would reward the boys with donuts from the gut truck and lunch at Gene Fullmer's Celebrity Restaurant in Midvale, in addition to getting to ride motorcycles after work. 

At age 14, Clements went to work for Martin Marietta, a Maryland-based company that built an $85 million cement plant in Leamington, Utah, in 1980-81, where his father was a salesman. Clements performed miscellaneous tasks at the company's Murray location during high school summers. After graduating from Taylorsville High in 1986, he played baseball at Utah Technical College, and then the University of Utah, where he suffered a season-ending broken leg each year blocking the plate. 

Learning the Ropes of 
the Ready-Mix Industry

Clements landed a job at Geneva Rock Products at 19, working as a dispatcher initially, and then quality control. He learned the ins and outs of concrete mix design from John Young Sr., and at age 21 was promoted to serve as Geneva's on-site representative overseeing concrete placement on the Delta Center project, a rigorous 18-month schedule that proved invaluable to his career. 

"I watched every yard of concrete poured at the Delta Center—it was great experience for a 21-year-old," said Clements. "I'd be there on a Sunday afternoon and Gail and Larry Miller would drive their Lexus down to the bottom floor after church and look at their building."

Over the next five years, Clements enhanced his knowledge of the industry via work opportunities outside of Utah, including managing WMK Materials' Bullhead City, Arizona, operations, which included a block plant, aggregate pit, and ready-mix operation before moving to Las Vegas in 1993. He then spent time in Atlanta on a job called 'Project Rocket', before returning to Utah in 1996 to work for Jack B. Parson Ready Mix, which had been recently purchased by Oldcastle, reporting directly to John Parson. 

"I ended up being their Vice President," recalled Clements, playing a key role in the company's explosive growth in Salt Lake, Tooele, Wasatch, Summit and Utah County and seeing it expand from 15 ready-mix trucks in '97 to more than 250 trucks by 2001.

In 2007, Clements was lured away to work for Draper-based Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction and start its paving division. 

"We bought a batch plant, purchased paving equipment, and I became involved with equipment, safety, risk management and paving operations," said Clements. "I eventually became General Manager and was in that role when the company was sold to Texas-based Sterling Construction."

He ultimately took a position as CEO of Texas Sterling Construction, which required constant travel from Utah to Texas over the next three years. Family reasons prompted Clements to move back to Las Vegas in 2013, where he served as a consultant, while also helping a friend, Gaylen Stockton, launch Western Pacific Precast, and then American Eagle Ready Mix. The light bulb clicked, and he realized it was time to spread his wings and start his own company.

"That's when I decided it was finally time to do it for myself," he said of starting American Eagle Ready Mix in Utah. "They're separate companies; I kept the same name because it made the startup easier."

Not Afraid to Compete 
Against the Big Boys 

Clements officially started American Eagle Ready Mix in Utah in 2016, with modest goals initially of just establishing the company's name in the market and focusing on incremental, consistent progress. He bought a patch of land in Magna, a used batch plant, cobbled together a fleet of ready-mix trucks and got after it. 

"We started in a sagebrush field in Magna," Clements recalled. "We bought 10 acres from Rio Tinto, purchased a used batch plant from Granite Construction in California, and bought used ready-mix trucks from (Geneva Rock) and Ernst Concrete in Ohio. I bought six trucks that were running and ten that weren't. We rebuilt six more using the engines, transmissions, axles and other components from the non-running trucks. Back then you could 'glider' trucks, putting the driveline onto a new frame with a new cab and barrel."

The company started batching concrete in August 2016, finishing the year with about 10,000 CY. In year two, the company grew 500%, and it essentially doubled production every year through 2023. 

Clements knew entering the Utah market wouldn't be easy, but he had a solid track record working for other companies and knew the effort required to be successful.

"I look at it like this: When I was with Oldcastle, for example, we started [small], and I helped build that company into a monster. I did it for them. I did it for RLW Construction. Finally, I decided it's time to do it for me and my family."

The first year was difficult. He faced long odds and some initial pushback from local cement producers who wouldn't sell him product until he proved he could survive. People within the ready-mix industry were also skeptical the venture would pan out, but he was unbowed having to go head-to-head with the huge ready-mix concrete producers in the market, confident his work ethic and industry savvy would ultimately pay dividends. 

"We had to haul cement from Las Vegas the first six months," he said. "We trucked it in and then would pick up fly ash from the Intermountain Power Plant on the return trip to Vegas. Every day we turned trailers. Whenever there was a wreck on I-15 or bad weather, there was definitely stress during that time.”

"One of the biggest things I constantly heard during the first couple of years was, 'Doug won't make it two years," he continued. "I even had the president of one of [our competitors] tell me I'd never batch a yard of concrete out of American Fork. We started the American Fork plant—working with the city was challenging—but we got it done. The naysayers kept betting against me. We eventually earned our niche and were off to the races." 

Clements said being a smaller company allows it to be more nimble and flexible in responding to customer needs, with supreme attention to detail at every level. "Our niche is being hands-on—internally, we can do it all," he said.

Joining Quanta Provides
Long-Term Stability for 
Next Generation of Family

One of Clements' greatest joys is having his four children working with him at American Eagle.

Tyler, 35, is AERM's President and started working in the industry straight out of high school for Ralph L. Wadsworth Construction where he worked primarily in highway paving and portable ready-mix batch plant logistics.

Mason, 33, recently came back to the company full-time after a 13-year career as a leading contender in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) bareback rider ranks, qualifying for the National Rodeo Finals five times. He is spearheading the company's new crushing and recycling operations, which came online in June. 

Colin, 28, is the Director of Operations and Logistics, having started at AERM during his final year in high school. He works in tandem with Jason Smith, AERM Operations Manager, overseeing batch plants, fleet management, and dispatch. 

Sarah, 26, joined the company in January and serves as AERM's Operational Strategy Analyst. She earned a Bachelor of International Business from the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) and spent five years working in hotel operations and management in Sin City. 

In 2021, AERM started providing ready-mix concrete on transmission line projects for Houston-based Quanta Services, a top national specialty infrastructure contractor which builds and maintains power grids, renewable energy systems, and pipelines.

By August 2022, the company convinced Clements to let it acquire AERM, a decision that allows the company to maintain its identity while providing greater working capital and long-term security.

The opportunity to work with his children and give them stable careers is second-to-none for Clements. 

"My dream for a long time has been to own my own business and work with my kids every day," he said. "Even though we're now part of Quanta, we keep our name, we keep our colors, we keep running our business the way we've always run it, and my kids still have the same opportunities they had before. It's been good."

His children said they relish the opportunity to work side-by-side with their hard-driving father and genuinely are enjoying their roles within the company. They're all competitive by nature, having been raised playing sports, which carries over into the business aspect of AERM. 

Tyler credits AERM's explosive growth to never being content with current success.

"The key to American Eagle's success really comes down to (our family's) drive to keep pushing the company to do more—to push the limits of what we're capable of doing," he said. "We keep the business growing, and as soon as we hit one milestone, we're already chasing the next one. We're not comfortable just sitting still. We live on the edge of being uncomfortable—I think that's one of the things that has allowed American Eagle to grow and succeed. We get bored when we're comfortable. We're always driving toward the next challenge and the next thing we haven't done before."

Mason officially retired from the PRCA this year and is tackling AERM's recycling operations with the same zeal he put into bareback riding.

"I've always had the idea of building our recycling operation, and I have the same goals and ambition that I had when I first started rodeoing," he said. "I don't start something and take it lightly—I want to do the job right and do it to a high standard. I have big goals and ambitions for the recycling division of American Eagle. We want to produce a quality product for our customers, support our concrete operations with quality materials, control the quality of everything we produce, and build something much bigger than anyone expects."

Colin said the family dynamic produces great synergy given they all have the same drive to succeed. Any disagreements at work quickly fade away once the dust settles.

"We grew up in a competitive family—we were always competing with each other," he said. "I think that competitive nature translates directly into business, just like it did in sports. It's that drive to win, and that's what we strive for every day. What makes working with family successful is we all have a passion for it. Sometimes it's difficult. There are days that are harder than others, but you have to remember it's business—it's not personal. A lot of emotion can come with it, but at the end of the day, we're still family, and that's what matters."

Sarah enjoyed her time in hospitality but felt at the end of last year it was time to join the family ranks. 

“At the beginning of the year, everything just lined up,” said Sarah. “American Eagle is celebrating its 10th anniversary, the company is growing rapidly, and it felt like the right time to make the move.”

She continued, “We definitely grew up in a competitive family. All of us played sports, and my parents always pushed us to be the very best we could be. You didn’t get to half-ass anything. That competitive mindset carries over into business. We’re in a very competitive market, and everyone here works incredibly hard every day. It starts at the top. People see the work that Doug and Tyler have put in since the very beginning, and that’s inspiring for the entire team.”

Bright Future

Since being acquired by Quanta nearly four years ago, American Eagle has continued to thrive, with similar growth rates in 2023-25 as before being acquired. 

The company operates five permanent batch plants throughout Salt Lake and Utah Counties, with a sixth plant coming online later this year. AERM also has eight portable batch plants, which allows it to work on Quanta projects in multiple states, including Texas, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, California and Idaho. The company has also greatly expanded its fleet capability, currently running nearly triple the number of ready-mix trucks. 

Tyler Clements said the American Fork plant sits on ten acres, with another seven acres for the crushing/recycling operations and equipment storage. That plant was initially a temporary batch plant at Pelican Point, erected when AERM landed a contract to supply ready-mix for the I-15 Corridor Expansion from Thanksgiving Point to Lehi Main Street in Utah County from late 2017 into 2019.

"When we landed that project, in all reality we probably had no business doing it," he said. "But I had the experience and confidence to do it, Doug had the experience, and again, we get bored very quickly just being comfortable. We like to live on the edge." 

Doug Clements admits that he's having as much fun as he's ever had and is excited to keep pushing the envelope on reaching greater goals. 

"The ready-mix business is different than construction. For me, it's like playing a game every day," he said. "Every day is different, and I get an adrenaline rush putting together all the pieces of a day's production—getting all the trucks where they need to be, making sure the quality tests are done and everything is running smoothly. It's like a ballgame to me."

"Doug is an extraordinary leader because he combines a relentless winner's mentality with genuine humility," said Tyler Thorn, Vice President of Ready Mix, who joined AERM in August 2024 after working 11 years at a rival company. "He takes complete ownership of his commitments, cares deeply about people, and never seeks recognition for his successes—he views every accomplishment as a team achievement. While he holds himself and others to high standards, it’s his quiet acts of compassion, service, and genuine concern for people that truly set him apart. For those who know him well, Doug is one of the most caring and selfless leaders you'll ever meet."

"I love what I do," Clements added. "As long as I can keep it interesting and continue working with my kids every day, I'll keep doing it. If I wasn't doing something, I'd go crazy."

Tyler Clements added: "Working with my dad has been great; business is business and personal is personal. We keep those things separate. We have really good days, and we have really bad days, but five minutes later we're talking about what we're doing over the weekend or where we're going next. [We] have built a great relationship that's allowed us to build the business, work together and grow as both a team and a family throughout this entire journey."