Германияның HeidelbergCement компаниясының британдық құрылыс материалдары бизнесі

British building materials company owned by German HeidelbergCement

Heidelberg Materials UK is a British based building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Previously known as Hanson UK, the company has been a subsidiary of the German company HeidelbergCement since August 2007, and was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

Originally known as Hanson Trust plc, the company was built up by James Hanson, later Lord Hanson, and Gordon White, later Baron White of Hull, who created Hanson Trust out of the former Wiles Group in 1964. Their principal strategy was the pursuit of shareholder value through acquisition.

Lord Hanson stepped down as chairman in December 1997. Hanson focused on building materials, becoming the world's biggest aggregates supplier and the second largest supplier of ready mixed concrete. In November 1999, Hanson acquired Australian building materials business Pioneer International. Dougal quit the group in early 2002 to "rebalance" his life, leaving with a controversially large pay off (variously reported at between £400,000 and £660,000, plus a pension top up of £636,700).

In May 2007, HeidelbergCement announced its intent to purchase Hanson PLC for £11 per share, a deal worth approximately £8 billion. This deal made the combined company the second largest cement and building materials company in the world. The transaction was completed through Heidelberg subsidiary Lehigh UK on 22 August 2007. In December 2014, Heidelberg Cement agreed to sell its Hanson Building Products division to the private equity firm Lone Star for £900 million. As of 2023, Hanson is planning to build a new carbon capture facility which aims to reduce the emissions from their current Padeswood cement works. The UK government chose Hanson, along with other companies, to show progress plans for carbon reducing solutions. In October 2023, the company announced that it was rebranding as Heidelberg Materials, as part as a branding rationalisation by its parent company.

The principal markets of Heidelberg Materials UK are the major conurbations in England and Wales and the central belt of Scotland. The company supplies heavy building materials such as ready mixed concrete, asphalt and cement to the UK construction industry. In March 2024, residents of Glyncoch, near Pontypridd in South Wales, started a series of protests around the over riding of the local authority's opposition to extend quarrying, by the Minister of Climate Change, Julie James. This successful appeal will allow a further 15.7 million tonnes of rock to be extracted for road surfacing and runways. The quarry operations will continue until 2047 and will come within 164 meters of schools and housing as well as destroying a community green space and a wildlife sanctuary. The appeal report claimed that "The dust assessments concluded that the potential impacts associated with both the continuation of existing activities and the proposed extension would be slight adverse at most." and that "From all that I have seen and read there are no objections or concerns relating to landscape, visual impact, ecology, hydrology, cultural heritage, agricultural land quality impacts"