Tarmac

Tarmac Limited

Type	Limited company
Founded	Edgar Purnell Hooley, as the Tar Macadam Syndicate Ltd (1903)
Headquarters	Wolverhampton
Products	Aggregate Asphalt Ready-mixed concrete Contracting service Recycling service Cement Lime Mortar Concrete products
Employees	Over 12,500 worldwide
Website	www.tarmac.co.uk

Tarmac is a company that is based at Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom and operates internationally. The company produces aggregates and road-surfacing materials, including tarmacadam, from which the company's name is derived. It was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

The 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.^[1] The business was secured in 1905 by Sir Alfred Hickman, who became its first Chairman.^[1] It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1922.^[2] The Company remained under the Chairmanship of members of the Hickman family until 1959 when Sir Charles Burman, a former Lord Mayor of Birmingham, took over that role.^[3]

Milestones in the expansion of the business included the acquisition of Derbyshire Stone in 1968,^[4] of Limmer Holdings in 1971,^[5] of Mitchell Construction in 1973,^[6] of McLean Homes in 1974^[7] and of Holland, Hannen & Cubitts in 1976.^[8]

The business expanded so rapidly in the 1980s that at its peak it had an annual turnover in excess of £3 billion and employed over 30,000 people: at that time it was a broadly-based industrial group active in building materials, housebuilding and construction.^[9]

By the early 1990s it had over-extended itself and in 1992 it reported significant losses.^[10] 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.^[11]

The company became a subsidiary of Anglo American plc in October 1999,^[12] three months after Tarmac had demerged its construction arm to form Carillion: this move left Tarmac as a focused building materials company.^[13]

In August 2007 Anglo American announced it was to sell the business^[14] but in February 2008 went on to report that it was putting the sale on hold.^[15]

Structure

The company is organised into three divisions: Tarmac Quarry Material, Tarmac Building Products and Tarmac International Businesses.^[16]

Major projects

Projects undertaken by or involving Tarmac Construction prior to demerger of that business in 1999 included the Preston Bypass completed in 1958,^[17] the St Albans Bypass completed in 1960,^[18] the Thames Barrier,^[19] the Joint European Torus^[20] and Drax Power Station^[20] all completed in 1984, the Conwy Road Tunnel completed in 1986,^[21] the Albert Dock refurbishment completed in 1988,^[22] the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994,^[23] the Medway Road Tunnel completed in 1996^[24] and Canary Wharf tube station completed in 1999.^[25]

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%.^[26]

• TarmacDry: a porous paving system which allows rainwater to infiltrate through the surface and be stored for other uses which was developed in response to the increasing issues of flash flooding and the need to save water.^[27]

• Topforce: a fibre reinforced concrete eliminating the use of steel reinforcement. The Carbon Dioxide of the synthetic macro fibres used in Topforce is 70% lower than that of steel fabric mesh reinforcement.^[28]

References

External links

• Official Website

Further reading

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