Who owns what

This takeover bid for BBP set me thinking about what has become of all the businesses and brand names that once supplied the UK housebuilding industry. Here follows a far from complete list of “where they are now.” The heavy side has almost all gone overseas; the only big local player left is Hanson, which makes it an attractive target for other would-be empire builders. It’s ironic that Hanson Trust, as it then was, started a lot of this consolidation process back in the 70s and 80s, only to be hammered for it by the City when it went out of fashion in the 90s.

RMC: readymix concrete and cement. Now owned by Cemex of Mexico. Also own Russell roof tiles and Rugby Cement and Thermabate

Blue Circle: Britain’s original cement company, an original constituent of the FT30 in 1953, taken over by Lafarge (large French conglomerate) in 2001

ARC: part of Hanson, medium sized UK conglomerate, which includes Hanson brick and Thermalite and the old Marshall’s Floors business

Castle Cement: part of Heidelberg Cement, quoted in Germany

Bradstone: a brand owned by Aggregate Industries, a UK asphalt and concrete conglomerate which was itself taken over by Holcim of Switzerland in March 2005 for £1.8bn

Tarmac: now the Industrial Minerals Division of Anglo American plc, which includes Tarmac Topfloor and Durox

Ibstock Brick: taken over by CRH, large Irish conglomerate, in 1999

Celcon: Owned by H+H International A/S, a Danish company.

Baggeridge Brick: an independent brick manufacturer, quoted on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) till August 2006. Then it was taken over by the acquisitive Austrian group Wienerberger for £89m. Two years previously, Wienerberger had bought thebricksbusiness for £100m. The 2006 acquisition lifts Wienerberger to No 3 in the UK brick market at around 24%. Hanson is No 1 at 33%, CRH is No2 at 30%.

Redland: taken over by Lafarge

BPB: once British Gypsum, independent (but for how long), quoted on LSE. As well as plasters and plasterboard, it owns Artex and Rawlplug

Marley: now owned by Etex Group of Belgium

Boulton & Paul Joinery: originally bought by Rugby cement, sold to privately owned US joinery business Jeld Wen in 1999

John Carr: another independent joinery producer, also owned by first Rugby and merged with Boulton & Paul, now subsumed into Jeld Wen

Magnet Joinery: once quoted, now owned by the Swedish kitchen company, Nobia

Premdor Crosby: owned by Masonite of Canada, quoted in Toronto

Anglian Windows: based in Norwich, went public in 1992, MBO in 2001

Velux: private Danish company

Osma: always owned by Dutch group Wavin. Wavin is short for WAter and VINyl! Used to be part owned by Shell but I now jointly owned by Overijssel Water Board (who started it in the 1950s) and CVC Capital Partners, private equity.

Terrain: sold by Caradon to Geberit. Swiss plumbing supplies company, in 1999

Hepworth: bought out by Vaillant, sold on to Wavin

Baxi Potterton: now part of a plc owned by private equity, includes Heatrae Sadia, makers of Megaflo
Aqualisa: part of Baxi group

Myson Radiators: owned by Rettig, a privately owned Finnish company

Marshalls: independent, quoted on LSE.

Pilkington: independent glass manufacture, quoted on LSE

Ideal Stelrad: based in Hull, once part of Caradon, sold to HSBC private equity in 2002

MK Electric: part of Caradon group, which seems to have disappeared

Celotex: private UK company, MBO from larger American business using the same name

Kingspan: Irish public company

Jablite: brand name of Vencil Resil, taken over by Synbra Group BV from Holland

Rockwool: Danish public company

Sadolin and Sikkens: part of European conglomerate Akzo Nobel which includes what was left of Courtaulds and Crown Berger paints

Dulux: still part of ICI, as are Cuprinol and Hammerite