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Building Materials British Gypsum is to set up a 210,000 sq ft building materials warehouse at UK Coal's Gascoigne Wood complex near Selby in North Yorkshire. 01-Dec-2008 Wolseley is to close 200 of its 1,900 building materials branches in the UK and Ireland over the next few months, with the loss of about 2,300 jobs. 19-Nov-2008 Travis Perkins is planning to shed about 1,000 of the 15,000 jobs in its chain of 1,241 building materials outlets over the next year. 20-Oct-2008 Wolseley is expected to shed hundreds of jobs from its plumbing and building materials business over the coming months, due to falling sales in the UK and US. 18-Mar-2008 Travis Perkins is planning to expand its network of 1,166 building materials stores with up to 100 new outlets this year. 05-Mar-2008 JT Dove is planning to expand the 200-strong workforce at its building materials business to 240 by the end of the year, and is also looking to relocate its Newcastle-based headquarters. 21-Feb-2008 RSK Group has acquired Stats, the environmental and building materials consultancy with 130 staff and offices in St Albans, Coventry and Swansea. 30-Jan-2008 EH Smith is to set up a new 20,000 sq ft building materials branch in Longbridge next spring, with the creation of 20 jobs. 19-Nov-2007 Anglo American is said to be planning to sell its Tarmac building materials business next year for at least £3bn. 03-Aug-2007 Acheson & Glover is to invest £7m in the expansion of its Northern Ireland-based building materials business, in order to double turnover to £100m by 2012. 27-Jun-2007 Norcros, the building materials company, is planning to raise up to £130m in a flotation on the London Stock Exchange in July, with the proceeds mainly being used to pay off debt. 04-Jun-2007 Formica, the US-based building materials company with 500 staff in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and County Durham, has been acquired by Fletcher of New Zealand for £352m. 04-Jun-2007 Hanson, the building materials group, has accepted a £7.8bn takeover offer from HeidelbergCement of Germany, which is expected to lead to office closures in the UK and US. 16-May-2007 Ennstone is to raise £51m in a share placing to fund the expansion of its building materials business in Scotland and the US. 03-May-2007 Wolseley is to acquire DT Group, the Danish building materials company, from CVC Capital Partners for £1bn. 25-Jul-2006 Foster Yeoman, the Somerset-based building materials company with 700 staff, is to be acquired by Holcim of Switzerland for an estimated £300m. 22-Jun-2006 Wolseley is looking to set up a new building materials distribution centre near Manchester, while its West Horndon site in Essex will focus on winning work for the 2012 Olympics. 09-Nov-2005 Cemex of Mexico is to shed about 750 middle management and IT jobs in the UK, following the recent acquisition of the RMC building materials business. 22-Jun-2005 Arnold Laver is to invest £3m in a new building materials depot on the site of the Hebburn Shipyard on South Tyneside, with the creation of 40 jobs. 03-Jun-2005 RMC, the building materials company, is set to be acquired by Cemex of Mexico for £2.3bn. 28-Sep-2004 RMC is to shed a further 80 jobs in Rugby and South Ferriby in Lincolnshire, as part of the ongoing reorganisation of its building materials business. 06-Sep-2004 Wolseley, the building materials company, has confirmed plans to relocate its head office from North Yorkshire to the Tachbrook estate near Leamington Spa next summer, and more than 600 staff will be based at the new £11m site. 24-Aug-2004 Grafton is planning to acquire Heiton, the Irish building materials group, for £226m. 09-Aug-2004 Wolseley UK is to create 30 jobs at a new building materials depot in Middlesbrough, the first of its new generation of Trade Park developments. 09-Jul-2004 Wolseley, the building materials group, is to relocate its corporate functions to an undisclosed location in Warwick, and up to 1,100 staff will be transferred from 11 regional offices over the next 18 months. 07-May-2004 RMC is planning to shed a further 225 of the 8,000 jobs in its UK building materials business. 04-Mar-2004 Aggregate Industries is looking to spend up to £150m on acquisitions to expand its building materials business this year. 02-Mar-2004 RMC is to restructure its building materials business with the loss of 520 jobs, which will involve the combination of its Readymix Aggregates and Building Products divisions. 22-Oct-2003 Wolseley has acquired three US plumbing, heating and building materials companies for £14m - Liberty Equipment & Supply, Nuroc and JM Lumber. 23-Sep-2003 CRH is to acquire Cementbouw, the Dutch building materials and DIY group, for £488m. 30-Jul-2003 Wolseley is planning to acquire Pinault Bois & Materiaux, the French distributor of building materials with 5,300 staff, for £390m. 25-Apr-2003 Aggregate Industries is planning to spend £100m on acquisitions in 2003, in order to expand its building materials business. 04-Mar-2003 Novar has acquired Alterton Technologies, the US supplier of electronic building controls, for £38m, and has also announced plans to shed 500 jobs in its building materials business in 2003. 27-Feb-2003 Nicholls & Clarke, the Shoreditch-based building materials company, has awarded a £7m contract to Trak to build a new headquarters. 29-Jan-2003 Hanson has paid £48m for five acquisitions, including Marshalls Flooring of Nottinghamshire, Small Lots bagged building materials of Kettering, the Red Bank soft mud brick factory in Leicestershire and aggregate operations in Spain. 02-Dec-2002 Wolseley has acquired four more building material distributors for £10m - Sumner & Dunbar and Tahoe Truckee Supply of the US, Brock Engineering of Canada and O'Rourke Plumbing Supplies of Northern Ireland. 25-Jun-2002 Ensor Holdings, the building materials company, is planning to move from a full listing to AIM to make it easier to acquire other companies. 04-Apr-2002 Novar, the diversified building materials company, has announced plans to shed a further 800 jobs. 07-Mar-2002 Wolseley is to relocate its building materials headquarters and up to 20 staff from Droitwich to Reading in January. 25-Oct-2001 Saint Gobain is planning to roll out a chain of 16 Platform building material stores for professional builders over the next five years, with the first opening in Birmingham next spring. 26-Sep-2001 Heywood Williams has announced a £5m restructuring programme for its UK building materials business, which could lead to a number of cuts in its 2,500-strong workforce. 03-Sep-2001 Novar is planning to shed 400 jobs in its building materials business in the UK and continental Europe, while a further 600 will be lost in the US, in order to generate annual savings of £20m. 01-Aug-2001 Robert Brett & Sons is acquiring Virginia-based West Sand & Gravel and Stuarts Draft for undisclosed terms, in order to expand its building materials business in the US. 12-Apr-2001 Aggregate Industries is planning to spend up to £150m on bolt-on acquisitions for its building materials business this year. 07-Mar-2001 CRH is raising £700m in a rights issue to fund international acquisitions for its building materials business. 07-Mar-2001 Wolseley is looking to spend about £200m on acquisitions over the next year, in order to expand its building materials business in Europe and the US. 27-Sep-2000 CRH is planning to raise £230m in a share placing in order to fund acquisitions for its worldwide building materials business. 06-Sep-2000 Aggregate Industries is planning to expand its US building materials business by spending up to £50m on four acquisitions over the next six months. 08-Aug-2000 CRH is to expand its US aggregates and building materials business by acquiring Dolomite Group and the Northern Ohio Paving Company for a total £114m. 22-Jun-2000 Wolseley is to acquire Anderson Lumber Company of the US for £108m, in order to expand its building materials business into seven new states. 05-Apr-2000 Naylor Industries is planning to spend £10m on the expansion of its building materials business this year, and aims to double its turnover within four years. 09-Mar-2000 CRH has acquired Shelley, the US aggregates group, for £226m, as part of a strategy to expand its building materials business in the Midwest. 25-Feb-2000 Hanson has announced plans to expand its building materials business by spending £188m a year on acquisitions, and is particularly interested in the US, the UK, Germany, Poland, and south-east Asia. 18-Feb-2000 Blue Circle has received a £3.4bn takeover approach from Lafarge of France, as part of an ongoing consolidation in the UK building materials sector. 01-Feb-2000 Rugby Group, the building materials company, has received an approach from an unnamed company that could lead to a takeover offer. 02-Nov-1999 Rugby Group is to merge its US building materials supplies business with Huttig, a subsidiary of Crane, and the new company will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 21-Oct-1999 Norcros, the building materials and chemicals supplier, has agreed a £171m management buy-out. 07-Oct-1999 Tarmac is planning to spend up to £100m a year on investment and acquisitions in order to expand its building materials business, and it aims to double the size of its operations in continental Europe. 06-Oct-1999 Wolseley, the building materials company, is to acquire British Fittings for £40m, in order to expand its distribution business. 08-May-1999 IMI is to acquire Polypipe, the building materials concern, for £337m, which will enable it to sell Polypipe's products into continental Europe. 16-Apr-1999 Hanson has sold its 24% stake in Westralian Sands, the Australian titanium and zircon producer, to a number of institutions for £87m, as part of a strategy to focus on heavy building materials. 04-Mar-1999 RMC is in discussions to acquire the remaining 75% stake in Alexander Russell, the building materials group. 26-Feb-1999 Norcros, the building materials group, is in discussions that could lead to an offer being made for the company. 29-Jan-1999 Stadium Group has acquired Dextroplast, the Sutton-on-Trent building materials company, for £0.4m. 28-Jan-1999 Meyer International has sold Pont Meyer, its Dutch building materials division, to William Pont of the Netherlands for £56m. 06-Jan-1999 The government is considering plans for an environmental sales tax on the extraction of building aggregates, in order to encourage the recycling of building materials. 06-Jan-1999 Aggregate Industries is acquiring Bill Smith Sand & Gravel, the Michigan-based building materials company, for £32m. 23-Dec-1998 Marley, the building materials company, has accepted a £365m takeover offer from Etex of Belgium, having turned down an approach from the John Mansfield timber company. 03-Dec-1998 Wolseley is considering plans to spend up to £300m on acquisitions to expand its building materials distribution business in continental Europe and the US. 21-Oct-1998 Tarmac is in merger discussions with Aggregate Industries, which would create a combined group with a strong position in the market for heavy building materials such as sand, gravel, rock and concrete. 13-Oct-1998 Hanson is planning to spend up to £700m on acquisitions to expand its US building materials business. 11-Sep-1998 Marley, the building materials company, has decided against making large-scale acquisitions and will instead return £40m to investors in a share buy-back. 04-Sep-1998 CRH of Ireland is planning to spend up to £420m an acquisitions to expand its UK and European building materials business. 02-Sep-1998 Wolseley is to acquire the Hall & Co building materials business from RMC for about £120m, and will merge it with its Builder Center division. 26-Aug-1998 Jarvis is considering plans to sell off some of its building materials operations, as well as some properties, in order to increase its focus on the transport sector. 13-Jul-1998 CRH, the Irish building materials group, has announced 14 small acquisitions at a total cost of £70m, including a builders merchant in Stoke, a fencing company in Doncaster, and a number of deals in the US and Europe. 03-Jul-1998 Norcros, the building materials company, is facing a possible hostile takeover bid from John Mansfield, the small timber company. 30-Jun-1998 BPB, the building materials group, is planning to open plants in six countries over the next year and may include Asia in its international expansion programme. 26-Jun-1998 Ibstock, the building materials company, has sold its 56% stake in Companhia de Celulose do Caima of Portugal to three local banks for £17m. 17-Jun-1998 Wolseley is acquiring three US building materials companies for a total £68m, including the Stock Lumber timber business, the Forward Enterprises pipe distribution business, and the Tozour Energy heating and ventilating business. 03-Jun-1998 Metsec, the building materials and engineering concern, is being acquired by Voest-Alpine Stahl of Austria for £42m. 30-May-1998 Hepworth, the building materials company, has announced plans for a £20m restructuring programme, which will include redundancies, the removal of obsolete plant, and the modernisation of the product line in its heating division. 01-Apr-1998 Blue Circle is looking to spend up to £500m on acquisitions and is particularly interested in expanding its presence in the building materials markets of Malaysia and the Philippines. 31-Mar-1998 BTR is selling its Australian building materials and Formica laminates businesses to CVC Capital Partners for about £650m, as part of a strategy to focus on engineering. 17-Mar-1998 British Dredging, the building materials concern, is said to be facing an imminent takeover approach, possibly from Grafton which already holds a stake of about 30%. 12-Feb-1998 CRH of Ireland has spent a further £40m on the acquisition of a number of small North American and European building materials companies, including businesses involved in glass distribution, masonry, paving, concrete bricks and fencing. 21-Jan-1998 Redland has agreed terms for a £1.8bn takeover by Lafarge, the French building materials company, having decided that a complete sale would be preferable to selling parts of the business following the decline in the UK stockmarket. 26-Nov-1997 Heiton Holdings, the Dublin-based building materials company, has raised £15m in a private placement in the US in order to refinance debt and fund future acquisitions. 20-Nov-1997 Redland, the building materials company under pressure from shareholders, has admitted that it could be vulnerable to a takeover bid. 03-Oct-1997 Hepworth, the building materials company, is planning a major strategic review in order to identify which core activities can achieve sustainable profit growth. 01-Oct-1997 CRH of Ireland is acquiring CPM, the US producer of aggregates, concrete and asphalt, for £59m, and says it will continue to look for more bolt-on acquisitions in the US building materials sector. 18-Sep-1997 Exports of building materials fell by 9.3% in the first quarter of 1997 to £888m due to the strength of the pound, while imports fell 7% to £1.27bn, according to the Department of the Environment. 12-Aug-1997 Ennstone, the building materials company, is in discussions that could lead to its acquisition of Bruntcliffe Aggregates, the quarrying company. 01-Aug-1997 Marshalls wants to swap its US concrete products business for UK building material assets, in order to help reverse a fall in company profits. 11-Jun-1997 Hanson is looking to acquire building materials companies, particularly in the US aggregates sector. 30-Jan-1997 Polypipe is acquiring TDI, the building materials concern, for an initial £3.1m. 29-Jan-1997 Natural Stone Holdings, the South African quarry operator, is planning to raise £6m in a London flotation, and will use the proceeds to help it develop the use of bowenite as a building material. 20-Jan-1997 Kingspan, the building materials group, is to buy Ward Building Systems from Rugby for £26m. 16-Dec-1996 Redland, the building materials concern, is to cut 700 jobs, mainly in Germany and France, due to difficult trading conditions. 27-Sep-1996 Caradon is believed to be preparing to sell 15 engineering and distribution businesses to CINVen for £190m so that it can focus on its building materials business. 28-Aug-1996 The information on this page comes from the UK Activity Report. 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