Brambles Industries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brambles Industries is an Australian/British dual listed company, which owns a range of operating businesses in the support services sector.
- Brambles Industries Limited is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as (ASX: BIL).
- Brambles Industries plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange as (LSE: BI.), where it is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Shareholders in Brambles Industries Limited hold approximately a 57 per cent economic interest in the combined group, and shareholders in Brambles Industries plc hold the remaining 43 per cent economic interest. The global headquarters are in Sydney Australia. The headquarters of Brambles Industries plc are in London and there is a third corporate office in Atlanta in the United States. The majority of the board is Australian-based, as is the board chairman Don Argus. Chief executive officer David Turner was the head of GKN plc, the former joint venture partner of Brambles' European operations.
Brambles traces its history to 1875, when Walter Brambles began his career in Newcastle, north of Sydney, Australia. Brambles Industries Limited first listed in Australia in 1954. The British side of the group traces its origins to 1759, with the establishment of the Dowlais Iron Company in Dowlais, Wales, which later became part of GKN. The two companies began a joint venture in 1975 to operate CHEP, a shipping pallet-pooling operation already run by Brambles in Australia, in the UK, and a second joint venture followed in the waste management sector. In 2001 GKN demerged its support services activities, which were then listed on the London Stock Exchange as Brambles Industries plc. The new plc and Brambles Industries Limited of Australia were then combined in a dual listed company structure.
Brambles operates on all six inhabited continents. The group has four main businesses, which each operate in a number of countries:
- CHEP: the world's largest in pallet and container pooling services business. Its customers include some of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers and retailers.
- Cleanaway: a waste management operator with a leading market position in Australia, as well as operations in several other countries. It previously included a major UK operation, but in 2006 this was sold to Veolia of France in a £651 million deal.[1]
- Recall: operates document management centres, computer back-up data protection centres and secure destruction centres.
- Brambles Industrial Services: primarily provides support services to the steel industry, including the construction and maintenance of factories and logistics.
Brambles also owns several regional businesses. Group turnover for the year ended 30 June 2005 was £2,327 million. Profits were £210 million before tax and £135 million after tax. Brambles employs approximately 30,000 people worldwide.
Brambles share register contains no one single dominant representative, a number of investment funds owning the biggest slices. These include Maple-Brown Abott, The Capital Group Companies, Lehman Brothers, and the National Australia Bank, amongst others. No investor holds more than about 13% of the company.
