Hanson Limited

COMPANY PROFILE

Hanson Trust was formed by James Hanson and Gordon White in 1964, and grew by acquisition to become a multi national concern with interests across the world ranging from chemicals and construction in the US, to electricity supply, aggregates and tobacco in the UK and gold mines in Australia. By 1992, and now renamed Hanson PLC, the industrial conglomerate had become one of the UK biggest companies. In January 1996 a decision was taken to demerge the business into four separate entities Imperial Tobacco, The Energy Group, SCM chemicals and Hanson. Remaining in Hanson were the major building materials companies ARC, London Brick and Cornerstone. ARC had come into the group in 1989 with the acquisition of Consolidated Goldfields. Hanson Brick was an amalgamation of early Hanson Trust acquisitions London Brick and Butterley Brick, while Cornerstone was a collection of aggregates and concrete products companies in the US, many of which had come through the acquisitions of Beazer and Kaiser. Over the next three years Hanson sold its remaining non core businesses to focus exclusively on heavy building materials. Substantial sums were spent on bolt on acquisitions, particularly in the US, before the company was propelled into a true international player with the acquisition in June 2000 of the Australian construction materials business Pioneer International for ?1.6 billion. By 2006 Hanson had become the largest producer of aggregates in the world and a global building materials business with 27,000 employees and operations in four continents. The company was acquired by Heidelberg Cement Group for ?8 billion in August 2007.

BUSINESS INFORMATION