| Industry | Piping manufacture (plumbing) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | Broomhouse Lane, Edlington, Doncaster, DN12 1ES, England, UK |
| Number of locations | 17 sites |
| Area served | UK, Mainland Europe and Middle East |
| Key people | David Hall (CEO) |
| Products | Plastic flexible pipes, ventilation equipment and systems |
| Revenue | £252.5m (2009) |
| Employees | c.2000 |
| Website | Polypipe |
Polypipe is a manufacturer of plastic piping systems, for use in the residential, commercial, civils and infrastructure sectors. The piping systems are used for a variety of applications including drainage, plumbing, water supply, water management, cable management, heating and ventilation.
Contents |
It was formed by Kevin McDonald (a former plumber born in 1933) in 1980, with the help of Geoff Harrison.[1] He had started another plastics company, Bartol Plastics, in the 1960s, selling it in 1966 for £450,000. Later in the 1970s he started the MacDee company which made plastic compound baths, but was forced to sell it in the late 1970s.
In October 1995 it bought Sud Ouest Plastiques (of France) for £2.1m. In January 1997 it bought TDI for £3.1m. In November 1997 it bought Gabo Systemtechnik from Thyssen Polymer (now owned by Deceuninck of Belgium) for £6m. In July 1998 it bough Domus Ducting for £4.7m; this became Polypipe Ventilation. In January 1999 it bought Pagette Sanitar Produktions (of Germany) for £9m.
In May 2007 it bought Geberit's PVC piping business in Aylesford in Kent. This became Polypipe Terrain. Also it 2007, it planned to take over Verplas of Dorset, but after being referred to the Competition Commission, the deal was abandoned in July 2007. In February 2010 it bought Silavent, a ventilation manufacturer.
In March 1999 the company was bought by IMI for £337m; Kevin MacDonald made £56m from this deal and Geoffrey Harrison made £12.5m. IMI sold Polypipe to Castle Harlan (of the USA), a prevate equity company, for £293m in September 2005.[2] In August 2007, a mananagement buyout took control of the company from the private equity company, although this deal was funded by Bank of Scotland Integrated Finance (since July 2010 mostly owned by Coller Capital).[3]
In February 2008 the Polypipe Sanitary Systems division of the company was taken over by a management buyout for £12.75m, which was borrowed from Investec Bank. It became CME Sanitary Systems (based in Warmsworth), with sites in nearby Warmsworth and Manchester making Celmac toilet seats and Macdee flushing systems.
The head office is in Edlington, close to the former pit. It has a distribution centre in Saffron Walden in Essex.
It mainly makes HDPE pipes for mains and waste water. Polypipe TDI makes insulation. Polypipe Ventilation makes housing ventilation systems. Polypipe Civils also make cable protection for underground electricity and telecommunication cables. Polypipe Terrain makes PVC piping.
Its Polyplumb and Polyfit brands are well known in the housing plumbing market. These use push-fit ring seals. HDPE products are used instead of cast iron pipes in high-rise buildings. PVCu (unplasticized polyvinyl chloride) pipes are used in slightly smaller buildings.