founded 1964 as hanson trust ltd headquarters london england uk key people daniel cooper ceo products building materials revenue 4 133m 2006 operating income 563m 2006 net income 401m 2006 owner heidelberg cement number of employees 25 400 2006 website official website a hanson concrete plant in zeebrugge belgium hanson plc formerly hanson trust plc is a british based international building materials company headquartered in maidenhead . traded on the london stock exchange and a constituent of the ftse 100 index for many years the company was acquired by a division of german rival heidelbergcement in august 2007 . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit hanson was built up by james hanson later lord hanson and gordon white later baron white of hull who set up hanson trust in 1964 . 1 their policy was to purchase underperforming assets and make them a source of profit . hanson and white were willing to take a wide range of measures to do so including mass redundancies and therefore attracted opposition and accusations that they were asset strippers 2 but from 1979 the company was successful from the shareholders point of view and respected during the early 1980s with hanson who gave millions of pounds to the conservatives admired by margaret thatcher . 3 one of the most notable takeovers at least to the general public was the acquisition in 1983 of the united drapery stores 2 or uds group which owned many of britain s most well known high street clothes shops and department stores including john collier richard shops and the chain of allders department stores . to fund this purchase hanson broke up uds and sold john collier to a management buy out team and richard shops to habitat keeping only the core department store business . in 1986 hanson bought scm an american chemicals to typewriters business . this included the paper division that was formerly the allied paper corporation . hanson sold most of the scm business units and the headquarters building in new york city for a significant profit . 4 its most significant single purchase however was probably its takeover of imperial tobacco group in 1986 . 2 hanson paid 2.5 billion for the group then undertook a major reorganisation ; divestitures netted 2.3 billion leaving hanson with the hugely profitable tobacco business for next to nothing . 2 hanson sold off the food brand golden wonder to dalgety plc in 1986 . 5 in 1988 hanson went on to buy consolidated gold fields for 3.5 bn . 2 an attempt in 1991 to purchase imperial chemical industries once seen by many in britain as the nation s leading company but then in decline was highly controversial and ended in failure . 2 hanson did secure the takeover of beazer a major housebuilder that year . 6 by the mid 1990s conglomerates were no longer popular with the investment community . some of the manufacturing businesses were spun off as u.s. industries in 1995 . 7 in 1996 hanson ended its time as a diversified conglomerate by breaking itself up into four separate listed companies hanson plc imperial tobacco the energy group and millennium chemicals . 1 lord hanson stepped down as chairman in december 1997 . 2 after lord hanson s departure the company focussed on building materials . in 1999 the company acquired pioneer international an australian building materials business . 8 in may 2007 heidelberg cement announced its intent to purchase hanson plc for 11 per share a deal worth approximately 8 billion . this deal made the combined company the second largest cement and building materials company in the world . the transaction was completed through heidelberg subsidiary lehigh uk on 22 august 2007 . 9 in december 2014 heidelberg cement agreed to sell its hanson building products division to the private equity firm lone star for 900 million . 10 operations edit hanson s two largest markets are the united kingdom and the united states and it is also active in many other countries . it is the world s leading producer of aggregates particles of rock gravel and sand and a major producer of bricks and concrete pipes . references edit a b hanson history a b c d e f g obituary lord hanson http www.theguardian.com news 2004 nov 03 guardianobituaries.obituaries legacy of the lord with the midas touch golden wonder timeline . ft.com . retrieved 4 august 2014 . hanson to buy beazer in 609 million deal . new york times . 17 september 1991 . retrieved 7 april 2012 . hanson plans spin off of 34 us companies hanson seeks to buy australian concern heidelberg to buy hanson for 8bn uk brick maker hanson sold by german owner for 900m . the telegraph . 24 december 2014 . retrieved 30 january 2015 . external links edit official website v t e construction industry of the united kingdom construction economy of the united kingdom companies consultancies and support services amec amey arcadis architecture firms arup atkins faithful gould buro happold capita ch2m cundall davis langdon elliott wood expedition engineering flint & neill gifford hoare lea interserve mace mitie mott macdonald mouchel rps scott wilson sweett group wsp housebuilders current barratt bellway berkeley bloor boot bovis countryside properties crest nicholson keepmoat lend lease mccarthy & stone miller muir persimmon redrow taylor wimpey united house defunct ashtons beazer broseley bryant homes comben homes george wimpey ideal homes mclean homes taylor woodrow westbury william leech wilson bowden integrated construction balfour beatty bam nuttall carillion cleveland bridge & engineering clugston costain galliford try gleeson interserve kier laing o rourke lend lease linford mace morgan sindall shepherd sir robert mcalpine volkerfitzpatrick wates willmott dixon suppliers current aggregate industries artex ashtead brogan cemex uk hanson london brick hss hire jewson kingspan kingspan off site mero schmidlin pilkington rmd kwikform sig speedy hire tarmac tarmac building products tata steel europe travis perkins wolseley defunct blue circle industries redland rmc group tarmac group government and regulatory bodies department for communities and local government department for business innovation and skills health & safety executive local planning authority planning inspectorate chief construction adviser to uk government industry bodies british constructional steelwork association bsria build uk ciob civil engineering contractors association construction clients group construction industry council ciria citb constructing excellence electrical safety council federation of master builders hbf institution of civil engineers institution of structural engineers national access and scaffolding confederation national federation of builders national federation of demolition contractors national house building council refined bitumen association royal institution of chartered surveyors scottish building federation select electrical contractors association of scotland society of construction arbitrators specialist engineering contractors group strategic forum for construction sustainability association for environment conscious building breeam code for sustainable homes ecohomes energy efficiency in british housing good homes alliance uk green building council other british construction industry awards building building regulations in the united kingdom building regulations approval construction news development control in the united kingdom new civil engineer planning permission town and country planning in the united kingdom category retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title hanson plc & oldid 700588811 categories companies established in 1964companies formerly listed on the london stock exchangeconglomerate companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in londonbrick manufacturersbuilding materials companies of the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view 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