Hanson Trust
An industrial conglomerate, of London Road, Twickenham
of Brompton Road, London
1964 James Hanson (1922-2004) and Gordon White sold Oswald Tillotson to the Wiles Group, manufacturers of agricultural fertilizers and sacks.
They then gained control of Wiles, reorganized the company and sold its fertilizer business.
Acquired Scottish Land Development Corporation.
1968 Bought a brick-making business, Butterley.
1969 Wiles Group changed its name to Hanson Trust, with James Hanson as chairman, to consolidate the investments[1]
1969 Sold Butterley Engineering to Oxley Engineering Co[2]. Acquired Provincial Traction Co ; sold Gosport and Fareham Omnibus Co to National Bus Co[3]
1970 Won a contest with Lex for Steels Garages but then agreed to let Lex Services purchase it, and acquire Tillotson Commercial Motors and Swain Group (Motors) from Hanson[4]
1971 Acquired National Star Brick and Tile, which served an area contiguous with that served by Butterley[5]
1973 Acquired B. H. D. Engineers, where Hanson family already had significant interests and James Hanson was chairman[6].
1973 Bowater Corporation bid for Hanson, partly for tax reasons; James Hanson would join the Bowater board[7] but the bid was dropped when it was referred to the Monopolies Commission.
1973 Sold about two-thirds of BHD Engineers - Holset Engineering Co to Cummins Engine Corporation of USA, and W. C. Holmes and Co to Peabody Galion of USA[8]
1974 Sold Bryan Donkin Co, valve makers, to Hopkinsons Holdings[9].
1974-6 Hanson made several US acquisitions[10]
1978 Acquired Henry Campbell and Co of Newtonabbey, producer of natural and synthetic thread and yarn, and vehicle distributor[11]
1979 Acquired Lindustries[12]
1980 Formed Barbour Campbell Division for the threads and yarns businesses[13]
1982 Acquired the Ever Ready battery company Berec
1982 Purchased United Gas Industries. Sold the European operations of Berec to Duracell of USA[14]
1983 Acquired United Drapery Stores (UDS) and then sold several of its brands of shops[15]
1984 Acquired the London Brick Co
1984 The Hanson Board agreed to a Management Buy-Out of J. Rhodes and Sons.
1986 Hanson Trust bought a 15 per cent stake in Westland Helicopters in support of a proposed merger with Sikorsky-Fiat; Hanson Industries in USA acquired SCM in a strongly contested bid and recouped its purchase price within 3 months[16]
1986 Acquired Imperial Tobacco Co; Hanson sold almost all of Imperial's non-tobacco businesses.
1987 Acquired Kidde
1987 Changed name to Hanson plc[17]
1988 The Kidde business was integrated into Hanson's US operations except for most of the worldwide fire protection operations which were to be sold to Pilgrim House but the deal was referred to the US Federal Trade Commission[18]
On 16 March 1988 Hanson sold the Ross Foods and Youngs seafood businesses to United Biscuits for £335 million.
1988 Sold HP Foods to French company BSN, maker of Danone yoghurt[19]
1989 Acquired Consolidated Gold Fields
1989 Sold Barbour Campbell, the industrial thread and linen yarn manufacturer, to its management[20]
1991 Acquired an interest in ICI but that company conducted a campaign to prevent Hanson taking it over.
1992 Hanson sold Ever Ready to Ralston Purina which already owned the Ever Ready name in the USA[22]
1992 Sold the construction businesses to their management after they approached Hanson with an offer; the new business would be known as Kier Group. The new construction group consisted of French Kier, Kier Construction, Marriott, Moss Construction, Wallis as well as Dudley Coles, once part of ARC . There were no plans to sell the other Beazer businesses.[23]
1994 Took steps to reduce debt, including selling all of the holding in the British operations of Beazer by flotation as Beazer Homes and selling Beazer Homes USA; Hanson retained 33 percent holding in Beazer USA[24]
1995 Gordon White died. U.S. Industries was demerged
1996 The four main constituents of the Trust were separated:
- Tobacco
- Energy
- Chemicals
- Building materials
The group was split into 4 independent companies: The Energy Group, Millenium Chemicals of USA, Imperial Tobacco and the new Hanson plc, which dealt in building materials and equipment[25]
1997 James Hanson retired as chairman
Hanson plc survived as a building products company derived from the original brick and aggregates business and in 2007 was taken over by Heidelberg Cement
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, Oct 23, 1969
- ↑ The Times, Nov 28, 1969
- ↑ The Times, Dec 20, 1969
- ↑ The Times, May 14, 1970
- ↑ The Times, Feb 25, 1971
- ↑ The Times, Jan 11, 1973
- ↑ The Times, Jun 16, 1973
- ↑ The Times, Sep 15, 1973
- ↑ The Times, Apr 13, 1974
- ↑ The Times, Dec 17, 1974
- ↑ The Times, Nov 22, 1978
- ↑ The Times, Dec 06, 1979
- ↑ The Times (London, England), Friday, Jun 13, 1980
- ↑ The Times, Dec 18, 1982
- ↑ The Times, Sep 17, 1983
- ↑ The Times, November 03, 2004
- ↑ The Times, November 12, 1987
- ↑ The Times, August 17, 1988
- ↑ The Times July 7, 1988
- ↑ The Times, May 31, 1989
- ↑ The Times Jan. 27, 1994
- ↑ The Times Apr. 14, 1992
- ↑ The Times July 7, 1992
- ↑ The Times Feb. 24, 1994
- ↑ The Times, February 25, 1997
- Biography of James Edward Hanson, ODNB [1]