Rmc Allied Ready Mix Shop history

1930: Danish engineer Kjeld Ammentorp founds Ready Mixed Concrete Limited and begins construction of its first plant in Bedfont, England.

Permission to build was slow in coming, and the first concrete to pave the yard and the loading bay was not poured until February 1931.

1939: Ready Mixed Concrete Limited of Australia is founded by Sam Stirling and Bill Freeman.

Like its counterpart in Great Britain, Ready Mixed of Australia suffered a series of losses until 1946.

With the new funding, Kelman purchased a plant in Liverpool and moved it to Poplar, where operations began in April 1952.

For part of 1959, RMC opened one new plant in the United Kingdom every ten days.

During 1963, RMC completed eight corporate acquisitions and formed a partnership with SOPEAL, a small company in Paris, to gain a foothold in France.

Eventually, this arrangement cut into everyone's profit, and in 1964 RMC pulled out of the union over strategy disagreements.

1966: RMC expands into Ireland.

In Great Britain, during 1967, RMC acquired a 50 percent stake in St Alban's Sand and Gravel.

In 1968 an explosion in a high-rise apartment building that had been built by RMC's joint-venture subsidiary, Taylor Woodrow-Anglian, killed several people.

In 1972, RMC commissioned a new ten-story corporate office on London Road in Staines and opened a plant in Hong Kong.

Bob Northcott retired in 1973 and John Camden became chairman of the board while retaining his position as chief executive.

In February 1981, RMC's management was restructured into four sectors: concrete and aggregates, trading and environmental, services and financial, and general industries.

RMC acquired the remainder of the company in 1983.

In 1984 a modern ready-mix concrete plant was built in Birmingham, and the old plants in Bordesley and Queslett were closed.

In the United States, RMC took over Metromont Materials in South Carolina and moved into Atlanta, Georgia, in 1985.

Meantime, RMC in 1991 acquired Germany-based Ytong AG, one of the world's leading producers of aerated concrete, with operations in Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Slovakia, the Netherlands, and Hungary.

In September 1995 RMC launched a £459 million rights issue to fund the buyout.

RMC bolstered its position in Germany in 1998 through the acquisition of Wülfrather Zement for £156 million.

In late 1999 RMC failed in a bid to acquire Scancem, a Swedish building materials firm; this prize instead went to Heidelberger Zement, one of RMC's chief German rivals.

Taking over as chief executive was Stuart Walker, who had joined RMC in 1971 and had most recently been responsible for the group's mainland European operations. It also faced it under new leadership, following the mid-2000 retirement of Young after nearly 40 years of company service.