What Old Hickory Clay Company does

Old Hickory Clay Company is a fourth-generation, family-owned industrial minerals business founded in 1918, operating from Mayfield, Kentucky with additional facilities in Tennessee and Georgia. The company mines, mills, and supplies ball clay and kaolin clay products to industrial manufacturers across at least nine end-use verticals, including sanitaryware, ceramic tile, bricks, rubber and adhesives, pavement sealers, electrical ceramic insulators, glazes and engobes, pottery, and refractories. Its product portfolio comprises roughly a dozen branded SKUs (e.g., SanKast, FC-120, Volunteer, No. 1 Glaze, Wilco UPF, Blend No. 2), available in shredded, air-floated, semi-dried, and slurry forms and packaged in bulk bags or 50-pound bags.

The company's core technical capability is custom clay blend development: it runs lab-tested formulation work tailored to specific customer production requirements, drawing on clay deposits across four states that the company characterizes as among the best in the industry. It supports domestic and international customers through multi-modal logistics (rail, truck, intermodal, barge). The company self-describes as the only private American-owned ball clay company and emphasizes that some customers have purchased from it since its founding.

Revenue is generated primarily through transactional raw clay sales, supplemented by technical services tied to custom blend development and customer testing. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The go-to-market is a relationship-driven, enterprise field sales model: customers submit an inquiry form, work with the in-house sales team (led by Director of Sales John Dowdle) to select clays for testing, and convert to purchase after validation. Marketing presence is minimal — limited to organic Facebook and Instagram pages — with the company leaning on its 100+ year brand heritage and direct relationships rather than digital demand generation.

Name

Old Hickory Clay Company

Legal name

Old Hickory Clay Company

Website

https://oldhickoryclay.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1918

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Old Hickory Clay Company is a fourth-generation, family-owned miner and processor of ball clay and kaolin clay, founded in 1918. It supplies custom-blended clay products in multiple forms to industrial manufacturers across sanitaryware, tile, rubber, refractories, and related verticals.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Mayfield

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Raw Clay Sales: Primary revenue from mining, milling, and selling ball clay and kaolin clay products to industrial manufacturers. Products are sold in multiple forms (shredded, air-floated, semi-dried, slurry) and packaging options (bulk bags, 50-pound bags). Revenue is transactional, based on volume and specific product formulations.
2. Technical Services: Revenue derived from providing technical expertise, lab testing, and custom blend development services to help customers optimize their production processes using the company's clay products

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Old Hickory Clay Company is a fourth-generation, family-owned mining and milling operation that mines, processes, and supplies ball clay and kaolin clay to industrial manufacturers. Its portfolio spans sanitaryware, ceramic tile, bricks, rubber, pavement sealers, electrical ceramic insulators, glazes and engobes, pottery, and refractories, with products available in shredded, air-floated, semi-dried, and slurry form. The company also provides technical expertise and lab-tested custom clay blending to solve customer-specific production problems.

Product overview

Old Hickory Clay Company operates as a fourth-generation family-owned clay mining and supply business established in 1918, offering a portfolio of ball clay and kaolin clay products. The company provides raw clay materials available in multiple processing forms (shredded, air-floated, semi-dried, and slurry) to serve diverse industrial applications including Sanitaryware, Ceramic Tile, Bricks, Rubber, Pavement Sealer, Electrical Ceramic Insulators, Glazes and Engobes, Pottery, and Refractories. Their ball clay product line includes SanKast, FC-120, 54-S, Volunteer, No. 5, M-23, M-44, No. 1 Glaze, No. 1, and RJM-1, while their kaolin offerings comprise Wilco UPF, Wilco LPC, and Blend No. 2. The company differentiates through custom lab-tested clay blend development, technical expertise, and over 100 years of industry experience, shipping products domestically and internationally via rail, truck, intermodal, and barge transportation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SanKast Ball clay product used in sanitaryware manufacturing, offering plastic properties and casting characteristics tailored for that application.
• FC-120 Specialized ball clay formulation for sanitaryware manufacturing, designed to provide excellent casting properties and green strength.
• 54-S Ball clay used in sanitaryware applications, providing plastic properties and workability.
• Volunteer Versatile ball clay utilized across sanitaryware, pavement sealers, refractories, electrical ceramic insulators, pottery, and rubber/adhesives applications.
• No. 5 Ball clay product used in ceramic tile, electrical ceramic insulators, pottery, and refractory applications, valued for plastic properties and bonding characteristics.
• M-23 Ball clay used in ceramic tile, pottery, and glazes/engobes applications, offering good rheological properties.
• M-44 Ball clay formulation suited for ceramic tile manufacturing, contributing to body strength and processing characteristics.
• No. 1 Glaze Premium ball clay specifically developed for glazes and engobes, designed to enhance rheological stability of glaze formulations.
• No. 1 Ball clay used in rubber and adhesives applications, providing binding and reinforcing properties.
• RJM-1 Ball clay utilized in pavement sealers, refractories, and electrical ceramic insulators, selected for specific performance characteristics.
• Wilco UPF Kaolin clay product serving sanitaryware, ceramic tile, glazes, pottery, pavement sealers, refractories, and rubber/adhesives, with UPF processing for enhanced performance.
• Wilco LPC Kaolin clay product formulated for sanitaryware applications, offering specific properties for that industry segment.
• Blend No. 2 Blended kaolin product used across ceramic tile, glazes/engobes, pottery, pavement sealers, and refractories applications.
• Raw Clay Materials Unprocessed and minimally processed natural clay materials, including ball clay and kaolin mined from company deposits across Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia, available in shredded, air-floated, semi-dried, and slurry forms for shipment via rail, truck, intermodal, and barge.
• Custom Lab-Tested Clay Blends and Technical Services Technical expertise, lab testing, and custom blend development services that help manufacturers optimize production processes and solve specific formulation and production-loss problems using Old Hickory Clay's clay products.

Quantifiable outcome

• Production efficiency and yield improvements through optimized clay blends
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Thiele Kaolin Company: Privately held US kaolin miner and processor with a long operating history, serving paper, paint, plastics, and specialty industrial customers. Comparable to OHC as a privately held specialty clay producer serving industrial buyers.
• Imerys: Global French-listed industrial minerals major that operates large-scale ball clay and kaolin mining/processing operations (including the legacy Kentucky-Tennessee Clay business) serving sanitaryware, ceramics, and refractory customers. Directly competes with OHC in the same ball clay category with materially larger scale.
• KaMin Performance Minerals: US-focused kaolin producer supplying performance minerals to paper, paint, and specialty industrial customers including ceramics. Closely comparable product portfolio (processed kaolin grades) and similar target customer base in industrial applications.
• Edgar Minerals: US specialty mineral producer offering kaolin and other industrial clays for ceramics, paints, and coatings. Operates as a privately held specialty supplier comparable to OHC in customer profile and product focus.
• Sibelco: Belgian-headquartered global industrial minerals group with significant kaolin and ball clay assets in the US (built around the former Unimin/Sibelco portfolio). Competes head-to-head with OHC for sanitaryware and tile formulators across North America.

Broad incumbents

• U.S. Silica Holdings: Large industrial minerals and logistics company primarily selling silica sand but with adjacent industrial minerals offerings serving similar heavy-industrial customers. Comparable as a publicly listed North American industrial minerals supplier with multi-modal logistics.
• Minerals Technologies Inc. NYSE-listed specialty minerals company operating across performance materials, refractories, and engineered clays for industrial customers. Broader portfolio but overlapping presence in refractory and ceramic-grade mineral sales.

Emerging players

• Continental Clay Company: Smaller specialty distributor of ceramic raw materials including ball clay and kaolin to studio, school, and small pottery/ceramic customers. Partial overlap — focused on the smaller-scale end of the same product category OHC addresses.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Old-Hickory-Clay-2047532582161847
• Instagraminstagram.com/oldhickoryclay

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Old Hickory Clay Company