Colas Ltd

Colas, the name

In the 1920s, patents were filed by two British chemists, Hugh Alan Mackay and George Samuel Hay, for improved methods of preparing a bitumen emulsion. In 1924, exclusive rights to patents in France were obtained by Alexandre Giros for use by the Société Générale d'Enterprises (SGE). The product was given the name Colas in 1924, deriving from the terms 'cold' and 'asphalt'.

Colas Ltd, the company

In 1925 two English companies, Cold Mix Manufacturing Limited and Asphalt Cold Mix Limited formed a new company, Colas Products Limited to supply the bitumen emulsions for use on roads. Between the years of 1934 and 1980 the company went through many changes and by 1980 consisted of two main divisions, the roads division and the building products division. In 1986 the organisation Prismo was acquired and in 1987 changed its name to Colas Holdings.

The name Colas Ltd was first seen in 1992 when Colas Holdings was reorganised and the bitumen road related surface dressing activities and Prismo were transferred to a new subsidiary Colas Ltd. Colas Ltd, became a subsidiary of the international Colas Group in 1985, which is headed by Colas SA in France. The head office for Colas Ltd is located in Rowfant, West Sussex, which interestingly has within its grounds the old Rowfant railway station which was part of the East Grinstead Railway.

Operations

Colas are a UK-based service provider to the highways and airfield sectors. Services include, civil engineering, maintenance, construction and manufacturing and all operations are carried out nationally.

Major projects

Projects undertaken by or involving the Company have included: