June 2006
Foster Yeoman joins Aggregate Industries'
Group
We are extremely proud to announce that Foster
Yeoman has joined Aggregate Industries.
Commenting on the company as a valuable
addition to Aggregate Industries, Group Chief Executive, Bill
Bolsover, said: “This is by far the largest ever acquisition made
by the Aggregate Industries Group and adds enormous value and
capability to our offering in the UK and Northern Europe. Foster
Yeoman is a customer-focused, solutions driven organisation,
acknowledged as one of the most innovative and successful quarrying
and logistics businesses in Europe”.
The company began as a small aggregates
producer from a quarry near Wells in Somerset in 1923, growing to a
turnover of approximately £240 million per annum with over 700
employees. It now operates two of the largest quarries in the
country, Glensanda on the coast of Argyll in Scotland producing
around six million tonnes of granite per annum and Torr Works in
Somerset - a limestone quarry producing annual volumes of just over
five million tonnes, as well as eight asphalt plants (including two
joint ventures) in Southern England, a fleet of ships, tugs and
barges, four Class 59 locomotives and a successful contracting
business.
Respect for the environment has always been at
the forefront of all of Foster Yeoman’s operations, and they have
striven to ensure that, wherever possible, lorry movements on the
nation’s roads have been kept to an absolute minimum. All of the
granite material produced at Glensanda in Scotland leaves the
quarry by sea, destined for ports around the UK and Europe. The
majority of the material that enters the UK is landed at the Isle
of Grain in Kent, from where it is moved by rail or barge to depots
across the South East. In Somerset, over 75 per cent of the
limestone produced at Torr Works is delivered by rail to depots in
the South and South East, 25 per cent remaining in the area for
local use.
Foster Yeoman’s fleet of ships (including two
97,000 tonne self-discharging aggregate carriers), and the four
Class 59 locomotives together provide the logistical capability to
move 10 million tonnes of aggregates per annum using these
environmentally preferable means of transportation. The company’s
expertise in logistics is widely recognised and respected and as a
demonstration of this respect they have been entrusted with the
delivery of such precious and unusual cargos as the pods of the
London Eye and Concorde.
The company produces a range of aggregates for
construction projects and in addition, has developed a number of
specialised asphalts including the patented Foamix, cold-mix
asphalt which uses only 10 per cent of the energy and produces 10
per cent of the CO2 emissions of hot-mix processes.
Foamix uses locally available arisings or road planings in place of
virgin aggregates.
Foster Yeoman is a major supplier to the
construction industry and the success of its operations has led to
the securing of major projects such as Terminal 5 at Heathrow and
the Channel Tunnel and Rail Link (CTRL).
In addition, complementing Aggregate
Industries’ own HS&E management systems, Foster Yeoman has an
Integrated Management System that covers all aspects of Health
& Safety, Quality and Environmental matters, thus ensuring that
every procedure takes full account of every possible outcome. The
system is audited by BSI, which stated that the company is the
first within the industry to achieve such accreditation. Foster
Yeoman operations have achieved OHSAS 18001, ISO 14001 for
environmental management systems and the ISO 9001 quality
standard.