Tarmac (company)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tarmac is a company operating in the United Kingdom, originally formed by E. Purnell Hooley as the Tar Macadam (Purnell Hooley's Patent) Syndicate Limited in 1903. The company produces aggregates and road-surfacing materials, including Tarmac, from which the company's name is derived.

The business expanded rapidly in the 1980's such that at its peak it had turnover of over £3 billion and employed over 30,000 people. At that time it was listed on the London Stock Exchange as a broadly based industrial group active in building materials, housebuilding and construction.

By the early 1990's it had over-extended itself and in 1992 it reported significant losses. In 1996 it disposed of its housebuilding activities to George Wimpey.

The company is a subsidiary of Anglo American plc, which acquired the firm, not long after Tarmac demerged its construction arm, to form the company Carillion [1]. This move left Tarmac as a construction materials company, which currently owns 521 sites world-wide, including 75 asphalt plants.