Displaying items by tag: Breedon Group

UK: Breedon Group says that it has “continued to deliver an encouraging trading performance since demand began to return in early May 2020 after the Covid-19 lockdown,” recording eight-month sales of Euro580m over the period that ended on 31 August 2020, down by 15% from Euro681 over the corresponding period of 2019. The group says that the figure includes the contributions of its newly acquired Cemex ready-mix and aggregates assets for August 2020.

As a result of this performance, the board reinstated its 2020 guidance, with underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) for the second half of 2020 anticipated to be in line with that in the second half of 2019. It added, “We continue to be reassured by the UK government's restated commitment to investment in the UK's infrastructure and to encouraging demand from the UK housing market, complemented by similar trends in the Republic of Ireland.”

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it will consider the undertakings offered by Breedon Group to which its deal with Cemex UK for acquisition of several of the latter’s ready-mix and aggregates operations would be subject. The regulator explained its ruling by saying, “There are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings might be accepted by the CMA under the Enterprise Act 2002.” This may lead to the completion of the acquisitions, which were agreed on 21 January 2020.

UK: The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that Breedon Group’s acquisition of a minority of Cemex UK’s ready-mix and aggregates operations “may lead to a substantial lessening of competition in the supply of ready-mixed concrete, non-specialist aggregates or asphalt in 15 local markets across the UK” in a letter to the group. The Herald newspaper has reported that the potentially affected markets are in localities where Breedon Group is already dominant, such as eastern Scotland and the East Midlands.

CMA senior director Colin Rafferty said, “As consumers source the majority of these materials locally, it’s vital to ensure that enough competition will remain at the local level so there’s enough choice and prices remain fair.” If it fails to respond to the CMA’s concerns by 2 September 2020, Breedon Group will face an in-depth Phase 2 investigation into the deal.

UK: Breedon Group says it has completed the acquisition of selected assets from Cemex. Following instructions from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) the assets will be operated as Pinnacle Construction Materials, a newly-created separate business led by its own management team and operating from its own offices. Pinnacle will offer a range of heavy building materials, including aggregates, asphalt, ready-mixed concrete, concrete products and cement, together with contracting services, from approximately 100 locations in England, Wales and Scotland.

The CMA is still investigating the acquisition and plans to announce its initial conclusions in late August 2020. Breedon Group expects to integrate Pinnacle into its UK business at a later date once this process is fully completed. Cemex agreed to sell Breedon Group some of its UK assets in January 2020. This included 49 ready-mix plants, 28 aggregate quarries and a cement terminal for Euro211m.

UK/Ireland: Breedon Group’s sales fell by a quarter in the first half of 2020 due to coronavirus-related lockdown measures. Its revenue fell by 25% to Euro371m in the first half of 2020 from Euro495m in the same period in 2019. Its underlying earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) dropped to Euro0.7m from Euro54.8m. Cement sales volumes deceased by 20% to 0.8Mt, aggregates by 20% to 8Mt and ready-mixed concrete (RMX) by 33% to 1Mm³. Its net debt fell by 26% to Euro281m.

“Following the encouraging performance of our businesses in the first 12 weeks of the year, the move into lockdown and immediate fall in demand in the latter part of March led us into a swift and managed shutdown of the majority of our operations, leaving open only those which were servicing critical needs,” said group chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Ward. He added, “The recovery in our markets now appears to be well underway, and we have seen continued improvement into July. The great majority of our sites are now open, including both our cement plants. While near-term uncertainty remains, there is significant pent-up demand to be satisfied in both housing and infrastructure.”

UK: An independent report by Mott Macdonald has found that Breedon Group’s Hope Cement plant in Derbyshire contributes Euro67m/yr to the local economy, up by 15% from Euro58m/yr at the time of the previous report in July 2017. The 1.5Mt/yr integrated cement plant employs 270 people, 202 of them directly, corresponding to 1.8% of total employment in the national park in which it is situated. Its economic contribution to the park’s total economic output of Euro956m is 7%.

Breedon Group said that the 90-year-old plant “Has a long tradition of actively engaging with the local community through its many social and communal activities. These include access for local residents to the Hope Works estate and the Earles Sports and Social Club as well as on-site open days and tours and a range of local business and community partnerships.” Manager Ed Hope said, “It is gratifying to see the healthy increase in our contribution to the local economy over the past few years. We’re very proud of the part we play in the lives and employment of people in the Peak District National Park.”

UK: Breedon Group has appointed Donna Hunt as its first Group Head of Sustainability. In the newly-created role, she will be responsible for developing and implementing a sustainability strategy to shape the group's practices and performance, ultimately improving the sustainability of Breedon's operations, products and services.

Hunt holds over 20 years' experience having held several senior sustainability, environmental and stakeholder engagement positions across the energy, aerospace engineering and construction materials sectors. She has served on several cross-industry committees on sustainability-related topics and remains an active STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) Industry Ambassador on behalf of the Mineral Products Qualifications Council (MPQC).

UK: Breedon has appointed Carol Hui as an independent non-executive director. She holds directorships with a number of companies, including Heathrow Airport, the British Tourist Authority, Robert Walters and Triumph Properties. Previously, she held a directorship with Amey, a UK-based infrastructure support service provider.

Ireland: UK-based Breedon Group has announced the suspension of operations at its 0.7Mt/yr integrated Kinnegad plant in County Westmeath and all other sites in Ireland. Breedon Group guaranteed 100% to pay to all Irish and UK staff to 30 April 2020.

Two non-executive directors of Breedon Group, Susie Farnon and Peter Cornell, have taken retirement.

UK: Breedon Group has suspended production at all UK sites except operations that ‘serve critical supply needs,’ such as those of the Hope, Derbyshire, cement plant. The group’s Ireland operations also continue, ‘pending further guidance from the Irish government.’

Breedon Group says that it has taken the temporary measures ‘to ensure the safety and wellbeing of colleagues, subcontractors, customers and communities.’