ZURICH (Reuters) - LafargeHolcim bought a ready mix concrete maker in the United States as the world’s biggest cement maker seeks smaller acquisitions to drive growth under Chief Executive Jan Jenisch, the Zurich-based company said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Swiss company bought Tarrant Concrete, based in Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas to boost its presence in the United States, its largest market.

The deal, which was for an undisclosed sum, is the second under Jenisch, who took over at LafargeHolcim last September.

The executive, who increased sales at Swiss building chemicals company Sika by making a raft of small acquisitions, wants to increase LafargeHolcim’s sales faster than the overall building materials market over the next five years.

Tarrant which has three ready-mix concrete plants and sales of $40 million, was targeted by LafargeHolcim because of its fast-growing building material markets. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metropolitan area’s 146,000-population increase last year was the most of any metro area, the U.S. Census Bureau said in March.

Over the past decade the Dallas-Fort Worth area's population has grown by 2 percent on average annually, adding 1.3 million new residents.

“The acquisition of Tarrant Concrete follows our Strategy 2022 ‘Building for Growth” by capturing growth opportunities in our most attractive markets,” Jenisch said in a statement.

“By being highly complimentary to our existing business, Tarrant will allow us to expand our ability to serve customers in the high growth area of Texas.”

(Reporting by John Revill)

By John Revill