Tarmac (company)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tarmac is a company based in Wolverhampton and operating in the United Kingdom. The company produces aggregates and road-surfacing materials, including Tarmac, from which the company's name is derived. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1922 and de-listed in 1999.

1 History
2 Structure
3 Major projects
4 References
5 External links
6 Further reading

[edit] History

The company was originally formed by Edgar Purnell Hooley as the Tar Macadam (Purnell Hooley's Patent) Syndicate Limited in 1903.

Milestones in the expansion of the business included the acquisition of Derbyshire Stone in 1968, of Mitchell Construction in 1973, of McLean Homes in 1974 and of Holland Hannen & Cubitts in 1976.

The business expanded so rapidly in the 1980's such that at its peak it had turnover of over £3 billion and employed over 30,000 people. At that time it was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a broadly based industrial group active in building materials, housebuilding and construction.

By the early 1990's it had over-extended itself and in 1992 it reported significant losses ^[1]. In 1996 it disposed of its housebuilding activities to George Wimpey under a swap agreement which enabled Tarmac to acquire Wimpey's building materials and construction activities^[2].

The company became a subsidiary of Anglo American plc in October 1999^[3], three months after Tarmac had demerged its construction arm, to form the company Carillion^[4]. This move has left Tarmac as a building materials company, which currently owns 521 sites world-wide, including 75 asphalt plants.

In August 2007 Anglo American announced it was to sell Tarmac to spend more time with its mines. Anglo hope to complete the sale in 2008. Although there are plenty of rumours of potential suitors, there seems to be no straightforward leader in the race (or stroll, depending on your viewpoint) to purchase the company^[5].