Breedon Group

Breedon Group plc (formerly Ennstone plc) is a British

Breedon's HQ is located in the village and parish of Breedon on the Hill, where stone has been quarried since the late 1800s. In 2000, Breedon and its Breedon Hill and Cloud Hill quarries were acquired by Ennstone, a Midlands-based aggregates group.^[4] The quarry at Breedon produces limestone and gravel.^[5]

Ennstone was then acquired by building materials industry veterans Peter Tom, chairman of the Leicester Tigers rugby club, and Simon Vivian, through their investment company, Marwyn Materials, in 2010.^[6][7][8] Their strategy for the combined business, which they named Breedon Aggregates, was to grow the company via the acquisition of small, often family-owned operations, in an industry generally regarded as having high barriers to entry.^[9]

In February 2016 the UK Government's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced it would investigate the proposed acquisition of Hope Construction Materials by Breedon, citing a possible lessening of competition in the building materials industry.^[10] The subsequent investigation held that the acquisition would not unduly reduce competition for the production and supply of aggregates, but that there should be further investigation into the supply of ready-mixed concrete. In response to the CMA, Breedon offered to sell 14 concrete plants from a list of 27 sites that the CMA believed would have reduced competition.^[11] The CMA accepted Breedon's list of divestments and permitted the acquisition. Plants divested included sites at Cloddach, Moray and Inverness. The £336m cash-and-shares acquisition of Hope closed in August 2016.^[3]

In November 2016 Breedon acquired the Sherburn Minerals Group for a total consideration of up to £15.7 million. Sherburn was a leading independent heavyside building materials business headquartered in County Durham.^[12]

In May 2017 the group acquired Pro Mini Mix, a specialist concrete ‘mini mix’ supplier based at Oldbury and operating throughout the Midlands. This was followed in August 2017 by the acquisition of Humberside Aggregates, an independent sand & gravel quarry and aggregates merchanting business based at North Cave near Hull in East Yorkshire, for a total consideration of £9.0 million. Humberside's clients include ready-mixed concrete and mortar producers, various Government agencies, local authorities, and local and national building and civil engineering contractors.^[13]

In December 2017 Breedon announced its planned acquisition from Tarmac of four quarries and an asphalt plant for £16.5 million, to be satisfied by the transfer to Tarmac of 27 of its readymix plants and payment of £4.9m in cash.^[14]

In February 2018, Breedon was reported to be in talks to acquire a majority stake in the Lagan Group, a construction business covering quarrying, cement, asphalt and contracting;^[15] in April 2018, it was confirmed that Lagan Group had been sold to Breedon for £455m.^[16]

In June 2018 the company acquired Blinkbonny Quarry in the Scottish Borders, adding nearly 3 million tonnes of hard rock to its reserves.^[17]

In October 2019 it was announced that the company had purchased Roadway Surfacing & Civil Engineering for up to £13.5 million, establishing it as a fully integrated business in North Wales.^[18]

In January 2020, Breedon agreed a £178m deal with Cemex to take over 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries, four depots, one cement terminal, 14 asphalt plants and four concrete products operations.^[19] However, the deal was suspended pending a regulatory investigation ordered by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority.^[20] The transaction was completed in September 2020.^[21]

The company moved to the main market of the London Stock Exchange in May 2023.^[22]

Operations

Breedon Group produces cement,

The group is reported to hold a total of approximately 900 million tonnes of natural mineral reserves and resources.[24]

Breedon Group owns a 37.5% stake in BEAR Scotland, which maintains roads on behalf of Transport Scotland, and a majority stake in Alba Traffic Management, an Inverness-based firm that provides traffic management services for highway works, events and utilities. Through Mobile Concrete Solutions (MCS), Breedon also operates an on-site concrete batching service, run as a joint venture with construction services company TSL.^[25]

Products

Breedon produces a variety of grades of bulk and packed cement, in addition to crushed rock, sand, gravel, agricultural lime and a range of specialist ready-mixed concretes and asphalts. One of its best-known products is Golden Amber Gravel, used for pathways and driveways; it is reportedly the only gravel with a

Other products include speedway shale, which is a mix of crushed limestone and clay laid down to form the competitive surface at motorcycle speedway tracks. Breedon shale is used in international speedway tracks such as Cardiff, Gothenburg and Copenhagen. Breedon developed its shale product alongside former speedway World Champion Ole Olsen and his son Torben.^[7]

References