Type Limited company Area served Britain Headquarters London Parent organization Breedon Group | Industry Construction materials Founded 2013 Number of employees 900 | |
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Key people Amit Bhatia, Chairman
Chris Plant, CEO Products Aggregates, Cement, Concrete Website Hope Construction Materials | ||
How we make cement at hope construction materials
Hope Construction Materials was a producer of cement, concrete, aggregates and asphalt in the United Kingdom, founded in 2013. Before 1 April 2014 Hope Construction Materials was the trading name for the two entities, Hope Cement Limited and Hope Ready Mix Concrete Limited. Hope Construction Materials was acquired by Breedon Group on 1 August 2016 for £336 million.
Contents
Hope had assets including the UK's largest cement plant at Hope, Derbyshire and a network of 170 ready-mix concrete plants as well as aggregate extraction and logistics operations.
History
In February 2011, cement company Lafarge and mining company Anglo American agreed to merge their British construction materials businesses. The deal was set to combine Anglo American's Tarmac UK unit, employing 4,500 people, with Lafarge's cement, concrete and aggregate quarries, depots and terminals. Due to the size of the venture, the Office of Fair Trading referred it to the UK's Competition Commission, who concluded in May 2012 that, because of the potential loss of competition in the aggregates, asphalt, cement and ready-mix concrete markets, some of their assets should be sold.
In November 2012, Lafarge and Anglo American agreed to sell £285 million worth of British assets to Mittal Investments. In December of that year, Anglo American's Tarmac unit became Hope Ready Mixed Concrete Limited, whilst Lafarge's assets became Hope Cement Limited. The deal was completed in January 2013 with the creation of Hope Construction Materials.
The two firms, Hope Cement Limited, and Hope Ready Mixed Concrete Limited, traded under the name Hope Construction Materials; the two entities merged on 1 April 2014, creating Hope Construction Materials Limited.
On 18 November 2015, Breedon Aggregates announced the acquisition of Hope Construction Materials for £336 million, and completed the deal on 1 August 2016 following approval from the Competition & Markets Authority. The combination of Hope and Breedon created the UK’s largest independent construction materials business.
Operations
When the two Hope legal entities merged in 2014, the combined assets included a cement works at Hope, Derbyshire, which is the largest in the UK. The company also operated 170 ready-mix concrete plants; and a number of aggregate operations including quarries, rail terminals and shipping wharves. In 2013 the company employed 800 people. Production at Hope Cement works in its first year of trading (to 2014) was over 1.3 million tonnes of cement per year.
Railway
When G & T Earle opened Earle's Cement works in 1929 it was linked to the Hope Valley Line by a 2 mi (3.2 km) single track railway, which was worked by steam until 1963. Most of the cement now travels over it to Earle's Sidings, where it is taken over by Freightliner.