Tarmac is a British
building material
Building material is material used for construction. Many naturally occurring substances, such as clay, rock (geology), rocks, sand, wood, and even twigs and leaves, have been used to construct buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materia ...
s company headquartered in
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The company was formed as Lafarge Tarmac in March 2013, by the merger of
Anglo American's
Tarmac UK and
Lafarge
La Farge, LaFarge or Lafarge can refer to:
People
* Antoinette LaFarge (1966–), American artist and writer
* Christopher Grant LaFarge (1862–1938), American architect and partner in the firm Heins & LaFarge
* Christopher Grant La Farge ( ...
's operations in the United Kingdom. In July 2014, Anglo American agreed to sell its stake to Lafarge, to assist Lafarge in its merger with
Holcim
Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 2021 ...
and allay competition concerns.
Prior to 1999, Tarmac Plc was an aggregates to construction company dating from 1903. It was demerged in July 1999, with the Construction and Professional services arms forming
Carillion
Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018.
Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...
plc. The aggregates and building materials side of the business retained the Tarmac name and was bought by Anglo American shortly afterwards.
In February 2015, Lafarge announced that the business would be sold to
CRH plc CRH may refer to:
* Calibre radius head, a traditional British ordnance term for a concept in ballistic projectile design
* Celtic Resources Holdings, an Irish mining company
* China Railway High-speed, a high-speed railway service operated by Ch ...
, once Anglo American had sold its stake. Anglo American completed the sale in July 2015, and the acquisition by CRH completed the following month. Following the purchase, Lafarge Tarmac was rebranded as Tarmac.
History
Formation
In February 2011, Anglo American and Lafarge announced their intention to merge their British construction materials businesses, excluding Lafarge's gypsum activities. In September 2011, the proposed transaction was referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading, and in February 2012, the Commission reported that it had a "number of concerns" about the combination.
The deal was set to combine Anglo American's
Tarmac UK unit, employing 4,500 people, with Lafarge's cement, concrete and aggregate quarries, depots and terminals. Due to the size of the venture, the
Office of Fair Trading
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economic ...
referred it to the United Kingdom's
Competition Commission
The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...
, who concluded in May 2012 that due to the potential loss of competition in the aggregates, asphalt, cement and ready mix concrete markets, some of their assets should be sold.
In November 2012, Lafarge and Anglo American agreed to the sale of £285 million worth of British assets to Mittal Investments. In December 2012, Anglo American's Tarmac unit became Hope Ready Mixed Concrete Limited, whilst Lafarge's assets became Hope Cement Limited. The deal was completed in January 2013 with the creation of
Hope Construction Materials
Breedon Cement, formerly Hope Construction Materials and later Hope Cement, is a producer of cement, concrete and aggregates in the United Kingdom, founded on 7 January 2013 by entrepreneur Amit Bhatia. Before 1 April 2014, Hope Construction Mat ...
.
The merger was completed in March 2013, following receipt of necessary approvals from the Competition Commission.
Lafarge Tarmac bought
Tarmac Building Products
Tarmac Building Products is a British producer of building products, based in Wolverhampton. The company was formerly part of the Tarmac Group, but was bought in 2014 by the joint venture of Lafarge and Tarmac's parent Anglo American, Lafarge ...
from Anglo American in April 2014.
Sale to CRH
Also in April 2014, Lafarge announced it was merging with Switzerland-based cement giant Holcim Ltd., to form the world's largest cement producer, LafargeHolcim. Three months later, in July 2014, Anglo American advised it was selling its 50% interest to Lafarge SA for £885 million ($1.5 billion), in part to allow the merger to clear regulatory hurdles.
In February 2015, Lafarge announced it had reached an agreement to sell the company to
CRH plc CRH may refer to:
* Calibre radius head, a traditional British ordnance term for a concept in ballistic projectile design
* Celtic Resources Holdings, an Irish mining company
* China Railway High-speed, a high-speed railway service operated by Ch ...
, with the exception of its Cauldon cement plant. Anglo American sold its 50% stake to Lafarge first, for £992 million ($1.55 billion), in order to allow CRH to buy the complete business. CRH completed the purchase in August 2015.
In January 2018, Tarmac bought £160m turnover regional civil engineering contractor Alun Griffiths (Contractors).
References
External links
*
{{Construction industry of the United Kingdom
Companies based in Solihull
British companies established in 2013
Cement companies of the United Kingdom
Joint ventures