Tarmac (company)

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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.

Contents

[edit] History

Familiar Tarmac logo in use from 1964 to 1996
Familiar Tarmac logo in use from 1964 to 1996

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[1], of Limmer Holdings in 1971[2], of Mitchell Construction in 1973[3], of McLean Homes in 1974[4] and of Holland, Hannen & Cubitts in 1976[5].

The business expanded so rapidly in the 1980s 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 1990s it had over-extended itself and in 1992 it reported significant losses [6]. 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[7].

The company became a subsidiary of Anglo American plc in October 1999[8], three months after Tarmac had demerged its construction arm, to form the company Carillion[9]. 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 business[10] but in February 2008 went on to announce that it was putting the sale on hold.[11]

[edit] Structure

The company is organised into three divisions: Tarmac Aggregate Products, Tarmac Building Products and Tarmac International Businesses[12].

[edit] Major projects

Projects undertaken by or involving Tarmac Construction prior to demerger of that business in 1999 included the Preston Bypass completed in 1958[13], the St Albans Bypass completed in 1960[14], the Thames Barrier[15], the Joint European Torus[16] and Drax Power Station[16] all completed in 1984, the Conwy Road Tunnel completed in 1986[17], the Albert Dock refurbishment completed in 1988[18], the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994[19], the Medway Road Tunnel completed in 1996[20] and Canary Wharf tube station completed in 1999[21].

[edit] Tarmac and sustainability

Tarmac, now focused on the provision of building materials, offers several products that were specifically developed in response to the need for sustainable solutions:

  • Termodeck: a heating, cooling and ventilation system which uses the thermal mass of concrete floors to cut energy use for heating and cooling buildings by up to 50%.[22]
  • TarmacDry: a porous pavement system which allows rainwater to permeate through the surface and be stored for other uses and which was developed in response to the increasing issues of flash flooding and the need to save water.[23]

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Matlock Trail BBC News, 2006
  2. ^ Notes on Financial Times Actuaries Index 1971
  3. ^ Notes on Financial Times Actuaries Index 1973
  4. ^ Sir Eric Pountain The Telegraph, 2003
  5. ^ Notes on Financial Times Actuaries Index 1976
  6. ^ Tarmac plc Annual Report and Accounts 1992
  7. ^ British home builders to swap some assets
  8. ^ "Tarmac Agrees Takeover", BBC News, 1999-11-05. Retrieved on 2007-01-22. 
  9. ^ "Tarmac to split in two", BBC News, 1999-03-16. Retrieved on 2007-12-23. 
  10. ^ "Tarmac up for Sale", Building, 2007-08-03. 
  11. ^ "Anglo American puts Tarmac sale on shelf"Guardian, February 2008
  12. ^ Tarmac: our structure
  13. ^ Preston Bypass Opening Booklet
  14. ^ Motorway archive list of material held by Northamptonshire CC
  15. ^ Environment Agency
  16. ^ a b Berry Ritchie, The Story of Tarmac Page 100, Published by James & James (Publishers) Ltd, 1999
  17. ^ Motoway archive: A55
  18. ^ Berry Ritchie, Page 99
  19. ^ Channel Tunnel on Structurae database
  20. ^ Rochester Bridge Trust
  21. ^ Schmidlin website
  22. ^ TermoDeck
  23. ^ TarmacDry

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • The Story of Tarmac by Berry Ritchie published by James & James (Publishers) Ltd, 1999