“The Spill Manager”

About Us

In 1961 two businessmen from the Flatonia area came up with an idea to start a business. J.F. Chupick and his son-in-law, Ballard Bennett envisioned a company that could take advantage of the many clay deposits in Fayette County. Soon after the two came up with the idea. Henry Schovajsa, a local attorney from La Grange joined them in this new venture. Initially, Mr. Chupick served as the President of the company. In 1964 Mr. Schovajsa became president and guided the company until 1992. The three started developing ideas for a manufacturing facility and potential markets. They built a small plant West of Flatonia on Highway 90. The one building processing plant grown into a large manufacturing complex. Balcones does it all, mines the clay, processes it, packages it, sells it and delivers it.

Business was slow at first but the possibilities were endless. The threesome stuck with their hopes for more and different types of markets. After struggling for a few years several new markets emerged. The need for cat litters and industrial absorbents made its way to the company. Balcones started developing both products and began selling Sani-Sorb cat litter and Absorb-N-Dry industrial absorbent. A few years later Balcones entered the horticultural market by introducing Soil-Life, as a soil enhancer. Field-Dry a product used to dry moisture on athletic fields soon hit the market. This small local business started moving its products into neighboring large cities like Austin, San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. After a few more years and a lot of promoting, Balcones started covering the rest of Texas and ventured into the neighboring states of Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and Arkansas. Today, their products have found their way into many more states and some exports to other countries.