Displaying items by tag: Ireland

UK: Breedon Group’s revenue grew by 32% year-on-year to Euro1bn in 2018 from Euro759m. Its profit rose by 13% to Euro75.2 from Euro66.3m. It sold 2Mt of cement and its ready-mixed concrete sales fell slightly to 3.2Mm³.

“We can be justifiably proud of our results. We outperformed the Great Britain market in sales volumes of all our key products, grew our revenues and underlying earning before interest and tax (EBIT), and once again generated strong cashflow, enabling us to pay down a material proportion of our post-Lagan debt by the year-end,” said executive chairman Peter Tom.

The building materials manufacturer said that the integration of Lagan Cement into the group enabled it to export cement from Kinnegad in Ireland to the UK. In early 2019 it intends to import cement from Kinnegad to a new terminal in Runcorn. Investments in the reporting year included an expansion of its transport fleet in the UK, a new mobile plant at its Hope quarry and the next stage of a four-year project to replace plant control systems at the Hope cement plant. Its single largest investment in 2019 will be the replacement of the raw mill drive at the Hope plant.

Breedon Group operates two cement plants, around 80 quarries, 40 asphalt plants, around 170 ready-mixed concrete and mortar plants, nine concrete and clay products plants, four contract surfacing businesses, six terminals and two slate production facilities. It employs nearly 3000 people and has nearly 900Mt of mineral reserves and resources.

Ireland: CRH’s sales revenue rose by 6% year-on-year to Euro26.8bn in 2018 from Euro25.2bn in 2017. Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 7% to Euro3.37bn from Euro3.15bn.

“2018 was another year of record profit delivery for CRH. We benefited from good demand and continued favourable market fundamentals in the Americas coupled with positive underlying momentum in Europe. Both were experienced against a backdrop of energy-related input cost inflation and significant weather disruption throughout the year but with a continued focus on performance improvement and operational delivery, margins were ahead of last year,” said group chief executive officer (CEO) Albert Manifold.

The group’s Europe Heavyside division, including European cement production, saw its sales grow by 10% to Euro7.61bn and EBITDA grew by 9% to Euro911m. Positive performances were noted in Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark and Poland. However, ‘challenging’ trading conditions were reported in the UK due to rising input costs and uncertainty about its departure from the European Union (EU). The Americas Materials division, which acquired Ash Grove Cement in mid-2018, saw its sales rise by 12% to Euro8.95bn and its EBITDA rise by 18% to Euro1.49bn.

Ireland/UK: Quinn Cement has extended its exclusive supply agreement for Master Grade Cement in the UK with National Buying Group (NBG). Quinn Cement’s Master Grade Cement product will continue to be solely available to merchants in the UK via NBG following a deal originally made in 2018.

“Our partnership with NBG has been very successful in 2018 with our Master Grade Cement sales in particular exceeding forecasts since we launched our new cement range. Feedback from NBG merchants has been very positive and demand continues to grow, so we’re delighted to agree an extension to our exclusivity deal with the Group,” said Quinn Cement’s GB Sales and Marketing Director Lee Gillman. He added that 2018 had been a ‘strong’ year for the cement producer.

Ireland: Quinn Cement has ordered one 53t Hitachi Zx530LCH-6 Excavator supplied by TBF Thompson of Garvagh, and a 52t Cat 352LF Excavator, supplied by Finning Cat of Lisburn. Both excavators arrived at Quinn Quarries over the summer of 2018 and are being used to load the crusher for supply to Quinn Cement. They are fitted with quick hitch systems to operate a new EPIROC HB 4700 rock hammer for breaking over-sized stones. This piece of equipment has been supplied by WAC McCandless, Belfast.

Three loading shovels also arrived during the summer of 2018, supplied by Pat O’Donnell’s of Portadown. Two Volvo L220H are based in Quinn’s Swanlinbar Quarry loading crushed limestone for supply to Quinn Cement. A Volvo L180H Loading Shovel is based at Quinn’s Wash Plant for the loading of sandstone into crushers, mills or trucks, much of which is supplied to Quinn Lite and Quinn Rooftiles.

Ireland: Irish Cement has been fined Euro4000 for dust emissions in December 2017. The subsidiary of CRH pleaded guilty at Limerick District Court to breaking the terms of the industrial licence at its plant in Limerick in early December 2017, according to the Irish Times newspaper. The cement producer reportedly unsuccessfully attempted to clear a build-up of dust in the plant’s kiln. A ‘significant’ amount of dust polluted the local neighbourhood subsequently leading to 21 complaints to the Environment Protection Agency. The cement producer was fined previously in mid-2018 for dust emissions occurred in April and May 2017.

UK: QPA Northern Ireland (QPANI) will change its name to MPA Northern Ireland (MPANI) in 2019. QPANI is the trade association for the mineral products sector in Northern Ireland with 87 members employing just over 5000 people. It has been an affiliate of the Mineral Products Association (MPA) since 2009.

“Our move from QPANI to MPANI was endorsed by our members as they believe the time is right to take this important step. The reference to minerals in our new title recognises the fact that our membership base is wide and varied across our Industry in Northern Ireland representing the extraction and processing of hard rock, sand, salt, lime and chalk into products that support and sustain our quality of life,” said Gordon Best, director of QPANI. He added that the association had
an ‘excellent’ working relationship with the MPA, other MPA regions in the UK and with the Irish Mining and Quarries Society (IMQS) in the Republic of Ireland.

Ireland: Ecocem Materials’ turnover rose by 9.4% in 2017 to Euro79.4m from Euro72.6m in 2016. Pre-tax profit fell by 37.5% to Euro2.5m from Euro4m in 2016, as its costs rose by 12% to Euro76.5m from Euro68.6m.

Ecocem makes cement using waste from steel slag. The company has its head offices and a factory in Dublin, as well as businesses in the UK, France and the Netherlands. It is looking to expand into the US, although its subsidiary Orcem Americas has come up against stiff resistance from environmental groups in San Francisco.

Ireland: CRH’s sales rose by 3% year-on-year to Euro19.9bn in the first nine months of 2018. Its earnings before interest, taxation, deprecation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 2% on a like-for-like basis to Euro2.5bn. The building materials producer said that its earnings had been supported by growth in the Americas despite poor weather. It added that ‘momentum’ remained positive in Europe and demand had improved in Asia. However, its EBITDA dropped by 44% in Asia.

By region the group reported falling cement sales volumes in the UK and Ukraine. Sales volumes rose in most other European territories, with particular growth in Hungary, Germany, Poland, Serbia and Switzerland. In the US it said that its newly acquired Ash Grove Cement assets and ones in Florida had performed in line with expectations. However, sales in Canada fell due to poor weather. Sales in the Philippines rose by 3% due to rising cement sales volumes and prices following growing demand. However, here earnings were hit by higher fuel and power costs.

Ireland/UK: Lagan Group’s bagged cement, brick and tile products have been rebranded within the Breedon Group. The Irish company was acquired by Breedon Group earlier in 2018. It manufactures a range of bagged cement, concrete roof tiles and clay facing bricks, which it supplies to builders’ merchants across the UK and Ireland. The newly branded range has widened the product range available through Breedon’s distributor network.

As James Cousins, regional director responsible for Breedon’s specialist building products, said, “It’s a very exciting time to be part of Breedon. We’ve spent the last few months getting to know our new colleagues, as well as the products and plants within the group, and the rebranding from Lagan to Breedon demonstrates our commitment to the market to move forward as a single brand, leveraging the strength of the enlarged group to offer our customers high quality products and the highest level of customer service.”

Ireland: CRH has appointed Mary Rhinehart and Siobhan Talbot as non-executive directors. Rhinehart will join with effect from 1 October 2018 and Talbot will join with effect from 1 December 2018.

Rhinehart, aged 60 years, is chairman, chief executive officer (CEO) and president of Johns Manville, a building materials manufacturer. Over nearly 40 years with Johns Manville she has held a wide range of global leadership roles, encompassing responsibility for business management and strategic business development. Prior to being appointed as president and CEO in 2012, she held the role of chief financial officer.

Rhinehart was until recently a non-executive Director of Ply Gem Holdings and is currently a non-executive director of CoBiz Financial. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Colorado and an MBA degree from the University of Denver.

Talbot, aged 54 years, is Group Managing Director of Glanbia, a global nutrition company with operations in 32 countries, a position she has held since 2013. She has been a member of the Glanbia Board since 2009 and was previously finance director, a role which encompassed responsibility for Glanbia’s strategic planning. Prior to joining Glanbia, she worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dublin and Sydney.

Talbot is a director of the Irish Business Employers Confederation. She is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland and graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Commerce and Diploma in Professional Accounting.