July 2007
Future of Bucbricks secured with Aggregate Industries
Aggregate Industries has purchased the family
owned specialist sand business, Bucbricks’, based at Ardleigh, near
Colchester in Essex, strengthening its offer to the specialist sand
market.
Bucbricks is run by Managing Director Lynda
Thompson – Chairman of the Quarry Products Association (QPA),
former President of the Silica and Moulding Sands Association
(SAMSA), and one of the most successful business women in the
traditionally tough construction materials sector.
Lynda shares ownership of Bucbricks with
members of her family and initially started working in the business
alongside her father from 1988, becoming Managing Director in 1992.
She became the first female Chairman of one of the largest
construction trade associations, the QPA, in March 2005 and under
her leadership saw it voted best trade association by the CBI in
the 2006 Trade Association Forum Awards. Lynda will assist
Aggregate Industries in a consultancy role to support the
development of Martells Quarry and the company’s other Essex
businesses, and in addition will contribute with identifying
strategy and determining the direction of a number of Aggregate
Industries’ other businesses.
Keith Thompson, Operations Manager, will
remain with the company, managing operations at the Bucbricks
quarry as well as helping at Aggregate Industries’ nearby Ardleigh
quarry. All of the Bucbricks’ employees involved in the sand
quarrying part of the business will be retained by Aggregate
Industries.
Bucbricks currently produces more than 20
grades of sand for supply to customers across the UK and overseas,
and will strengthen and complement Aggregate Industries’ existing
specialist sand business, Garside Sands, based at Leighton Buzzard,
extending its geographical coverage to the East of England and
boosting sand and gravel reserves for the booming South East
region.
Speaking about the acquisition, Lynda said:
“Bucbricks has developed its silica sand business over a long
period of time and I am sure that Aggregate Industries will take
the opportunity to expand that business whilst securing its long
term future and that of the employees for many years to come, both
of which are very dear to me”.
Bucbricks’ specialist sand products are
well-known to sports venues such as Wentworth golf course, and are
used in sporting environments ranging from football and cricket
pitches to dressage rings and other amenities. The company’s
specialist industrial sands also have a special rounded grain
shape, suiting them perfectly for important and sometimes
life-saving applications, such as water filtration. Bucbricks’
customers range from the UK Water Authorities and water companies
in Portugal, Qatar, Bahrain, Russia and the Falkland Islands to the
British Armed Forces. The Royal Engineers, NATO’s only specialist
well-drilling unit use Bucbricks’ sands to provide filters for
newly sunk bore holes to abstract water in military areas and the
company’s graded dried sands are also exported to the third world
to ensure essential clean drinking water.
Group Chief Executive of Aggregate Industries,
Bill Bolsover, said: ‘Bucbricks will dovetail perfectly with our
Garside Sands business and I am very pleased that this company,
which I have admired for some time, is now part of Aggregate
Industries. I am especially delighted that Lynda has agreed to stay
on as consultant and that she has also agreed to take on an
important role in determining the future direction of a number of
our other businesses.
I have known Lynda as a personal friend for
many years and greatly admire what she has achieved both at
Bucbricks and for the industry as a whole. She has never been
afraid to speak out on the range of issues affecting our sector and
her vision and business experience will be invaluable not only to
our enlarged specialist sands business but also to our other
aggregate operations. I look forward to the success that the
combined strength and knowledge of the two businesses will
bring.”
Colin Parke, General Manager of Garside Sands,
will oversee operations at both Bucbricks and Garside Sands to
maximize the synergies between the two businesses, using Garside
Sands’ sales structure to provide nationwide sales coverage for
products from both businesses. The enlarged business will allow
Aggregate Industries to extend its offer to its national and
international customer base, while also increasing the company’s
sand and gravel reserves in the Essex area.
Bucbricks operates to stringent environmental
standards in keeping with Aggregate Industries’ own environmental
policy and won a Gold Award from Essex County Council in 2006,
reflecting the company’s high standard of operation and commitment
to minimising environmental impact.
http://www.bucbricks.com