Markel buys N.J. specialty firm Solbern [Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va.]

May 12--Markel Corp. is adding pickle-jar stuffers and burrito-dough folders to its multibillion-dollar-a-year insurance business.

The Henrico County-based insurance giant has added another company -- New Jersey-based Solbern LLC -- to its stable of family-owned companies with specialty niches ranging from making dredges to running mobile-home parks.

Solbern's specialty for 50 years has been machinery that fills bottle and cartons with vegetables, pickles and spices, and more recently machines that fold dough for everything from burritos to blintzes.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Markel last year stepped up its activity in buying or investing in privately held firms.

In October, it bought a private Texas company, Panel Specialists Inc., that makes panels, wall systems, casework, furniture and countertops.

In December, it bought Baltimore-based Ellicott Dredge Enterprises LLC, which makes equipment that can dig in water 60 feet deep and scoop 1,800 cubic yards of mud, sand and muck an hour -- enough to cover a football field 9 feet deep.

Its other investments included a mobile-home park operator and a large stake in what's now Union First Market Bankshares.

Its first investment in a privately held company was a majority stake in AMF Bakery Systems, a Richmond-based manufacturer of high-speed equipment for large bakeries. -- David Ress

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