Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement.[1] It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, together having around a 70% market share of the British cement market. In 1911, the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd was formed by the addition of a further 35 companies, creating a company with an initial 80% of the British cement market.
Subsequently, the company expanded overseas, predominantly into commonwealth countries and South and Central America. The energy crisis of the 1970 caused the contraction of the company, and the sale of its overseas plants. In 1978, the company's name was changed to Blue Circle.
The company was founded in 1900 as Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd by the amalgamation of 24 cement companies,[2] owning 35 cement plants, all but two of which were on the Thames and Medway estuaries near London. These included the two cement plants (Robin's and Swanscombe) that first manufactured Portland cement in the 1840s. The initial prospectus of the merger[3] (in a time before anti-trust laws) was to unify the entire British cement industry, eliminating competition, and excluding imports. The merger plan failed because a number of small companies – many of them outside the London area – refused to discuss the proposition, four major players in the initial discussions dropped out, and a further three committed companies dropped out at the last minute. Nonetheless, the company held 70% of the British cement manufacturing capacity (1.25 million tons per annum out of a total 1.8 million tons). The company had acquired, at considerable cost, patents related to the use of rotary kilns (see cement kiln).
However, the patents proved valueless, since rotary kilns were already in place or being installed by their competitors. In the ensuing decade, the majority of the rotary kilns installed in Britain were installed by the competition, including several newly launched companies. Because of the circumstances of the company's launch, it was short of cash and could ill afford investment. By 1910, its capacity remained 1.25 million tons per annum, although competing capacity had risen to 1.8 million tons. Although a few favoured plants had been modernized and updated, the majority of the original 35 plants had been shut down. In 1911, a second attempt was made to unify the industry: 33 companies, including all the original drop-outs, were merged to form the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd. This time, a substantial number of plants outside the London area were involved. Again, a small but significant number of companies refused to join. The combined APCM and BPCM companies now controlled 80% of national capacity, in 58 plants. This pattern became a template for subsequent history: declining capacity share was periodically boosted by acquisition of competitors, and the company continued to maintain 60–70% of British capacity until its demise.
Overseas expansion
Blue Circle's overseas activities began in 1912. The Tolteca plant near Mexico City had been established by the American Louisville Cement Company. The Americans, rattled by Mexican political instability in 1912, wanted to sell out. A Blue Circle director travelling in Mexico wrote them a cheque, and on returning to London, announced to the Board that they were now operating in Mexico. Similar deals were made for plants in Vancouver Island, Canada and the Orange Free State, South Africa in the same year. In later years, this wide geographical spread became a notable advantage for the company. The cement industry, although extremely capital-intensive, is subject to exaggerated economic cycles. Geographical spread allowed financing of investment in areas experiencing down-turns using revenue from more buoyant areas. At various times, the company owned or part-owned manufacturing capacity in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, India, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Egypt, Ireland, Spain, Denmark, Greece, United States, Chile and Brazil. During the 1970s Blue Circle became, briefly, the largest cement manufacturer in the world.[4]
In the 1920s the company's main brand name – Blue Circle – began to be used informally for the company itself. But it was not until 1978 that the UK company name was officially changed from APCM Ltd to Blue Circle Industries plc.
The company gradually built up a competence in the technical aspects of low-cost cement manufacture, and installed many new plants during the period 1950–1970, to its own specifications. It also sold manufacturing and plant-installation turnkey consultancy.
The company faltered following the 1970s energy crisis. The company's UK capacity reached its peak of 13 million tonnes per annum in 1973, and ultimately fell to half that level. Simultaneous worldwide contraction of markets led to severe retrenchment. In the 1980s, major overseas investments were sold, notably the by-then very large Mexican operation. The Mexican plants became incorporated into the Cemex group, which by 2006 became the world's third largest cement manufacturer. This was followed by several failed attempts at diversification, which also failed to enhance investor confidence. In the late 1990s, the company again attempted to expand its cement operations geographically, this time facing intense competition from other large companies.
Fate
25 kg bags of Blue Circle/Lafarge cement
In 2001, the company, now shrunk to sixth largest worldwide, was bought by the French company Lafarge.[5] Lafarge thus became the world's largest cement manufacturer. Lafarge continued to use "Blue Circle" as its cement brand name in the UK.
An agreement in 2012 between Lafarge and Anglo American proposed the creation of a joint venture to be known as Lafarge Tarmac. The Office of Fair Trading referred the deal to the Competition Commission, which instructed the two companies to sell off the Hope works in Derbyshire along with over half of their proposed joint UK ready-mix concrete capacity, together with sundry other facilities including asphalt plants, as a condition of approval for the joint venture. This led to the creation of Hope Construction Materials, which commenced operations in 2013 as Britain's leading independent producer of cement, ready-mix and aggregates, following acquisition of over 170 operational sites, including the former Blue Circle Hope cement works. In 2016, The Breedon Group purchased Hope Construction Materials for £336 million.
In 2015, following the merger of Lafarge and Holcim, as part of another complex deal to appease European competition regulators, the Irish building materials company CRH plc took control of a number of former LarargeHolcim assets, including the Tarmac and Blue Circle brands, together with the former Blue Circle works locations of Aberthaw, Barnstone, Dunbar, Northfleet and Westbury.
The Holcim Group retained control of the two remaining former Blue Circle UK cement works, Cauldon and Cookstown, as part of Aggregate Industries, using the "Lafarge Cement" brand.
