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Colas Group is a major French civil engineering firm specialising in road construction and rail track construction through its
Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure and rail freight company primarily active in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of the French industrial group Bouygues. Colas Rail was originally created as ''Seco Rail'', named after its then-pare ...
subsidiary. Since the 1990s, the group has incorporated the Screg and Sacer road construction firms. Road construction makes up 80% of the group's activities. Additional related activities include road signage, construction, various civil engineering activities including pipe-laying, and rail track construction and maintenance. Colas Ltd is a UK subsidiary.


History


Colas

The product name Colas was given in 1924, derived from the terms 'cold' and 'asphalt'.
Fed by local demand, SGE developed production facilities in France in the 1920s, and also exported the Colas product to French North African possessions, Poland, and Romania. By the end of the 1920s, demand was such that SGE sought the partnership of Anglo-Dutch oil company
Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard o ...
, and the ''Société Routière Colas'' company was founded, with two Shell subsidiaries taking two thirds of the stock and SGE the remaining third. Despite its creation during the Great Depression, the company was successful. It developed new bitumen emulsion-derived products and diversified into a wide range of road construction services during the 1930s. During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the company, majority-owned by a Dutch firm, was treated as an enemy possession. After the war, the company recovered and became the leading road construction company in France. It expanded into French North Africa, creating full subsidiary operations in Algeria and Morocco by 1950. The ''Société Parisienne Raveau-Cartier'' acquired most of Shell's shares in the company in 1958. In the decades following World War II, the company established a strong position in the French market through collaboration with the government transportation ministry. It continued to operate in former colonies in Africa and elsewhere, and began to expand via native subsidiaries in other European countries. It also expanded through acquisitions in France, Belgium (''Arboroute''), Canada, and established a
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
presence in
Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
. In the 1980s, still the market leader in France and North Africa, the company acquired ''Grands Travaux de l’Est'', the starting point for expansion into countries surrounding the Indian Ocean as well as the diversification into its civil engineering activities. The Bouygues company became the main shareholder in the 1980s, with Colas under Shell/Bouygues jointly holding the Société d'Investissement de Travaux Publics (SITP). French road construction competitors Screg and Sacer were also part of the SITP structure. By the 1990s, the international subsidiaries had been bought back from Shell, and both Sacer (1993) and Screg (1997) became Colas subsidiaries. In 2000, the group acquired Seco Rail,SECO was the ''Societe d'Etudes et de Construction d'Outillage''. followed by AMEC Spie Rail AMEC acquired the
Spie Batignolles Spie Batignolles is a French construction company based in Neuilly-sur-Seine. The company provides building and infrastructure construction in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland. Company history Ernest Goüin fo ...
engineering group between 1997 and 2003, including the Spie Rail subsidiary
in May 2007. The
Colas Rail Colas Rail is a railway infrastructure and rail freight company primarily active in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of the French industrial group Bouygues. Colas Rail was originally created as ''Seco Rail'', named after its then-pare ...
division was formed in 2007.


Sacer

The origins of the Sacer company date back to the 19th century and the ''Anciens Etablissements Brun'' company, formed through the merger of companies owned by Gaëtan Brun (son of Pierre-Jean-Félix Brun) and Alphonse Brun; the newly created company took steam tractors used to transport agricultural produce and put them into road construction service in between farming seasons. The first road-rolling contract was awarded in 1874. A new automated product, ''Bitulithe'', was developed in 1911. In 1920, the road-rolling entities were spun off into a separate company, ''Société Anonyme pour la Construction et l'Entretien des Routes'' (SACER). In the following two decades, the company expanded throughout France and into
Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...
and
Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...
. In 1969, the ''Raveau-Cartier'' investment group (also a Colas stakeholder) took control of Sacer. In 1992, it became a Colas subsidiary, and in 2002 the Sacer holding company merged with Colas and three regional subsidiaries were formed: ''Sacer Atlantique'', ''Sacer Paris-Nord-Est'' and ''Sacer Sud-Est''.


Screg

In 1910 in Blaye, near
Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...
, France, the ''JF Humarau & Cie.'' chemical company (founded in 1898 by Jean-Ferdinand and Louis Humarau) set up a tar distillation factory. In 1917, it became the ''Société Chimique de La Gironde'' (SCG), known as ''"La Gironde"''. From 1924, the company began to specialise in road construction products, producing bitumen emulsions by 1926, and operating over ten production plants by 1928.Sources:

During the 1930s, the company started road construction, and became the ''Société Chimique & Routière de la Gironde'' (SCRG) in 1936. In the next three decades, the company diversified into related business areas, including civil engineering and construction, and in 1964 was renamed ''Société Chimique Routière & d’Entreprise Générale'' (Screg). In 1979, the '' Screg Routes et Travaux Publics'' subsidiary was spun off, and during the 1980s Sacer and Colas became part of the same holding group as Screg. Screg Belgium was founded in 1989. During the 1990s, the company became a Colas group subsidiary, and the Screg Routes road construction company became the Screg subsidiary. In 2006, Screg Belgium was renamed Colas Belgium.


Notes


References


External links

;Company websites: * ** ** **{{citation, url=http://www.colasrail.com/, work= www.colasrail.com, language = French, English, title = COLAS RAIL, publisher = Colas Rail Construction and civil engineering companies of France Bouygues Railway infrastructure companies Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1924 French companies established in 1924