Blue Circle Industries - History

History

The company was founded in 1900 as Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd by the amalgamation of 24 cement companies, owning a total of 35 cement plants, all but two of which were located on Thames and Medway estuaries near London, England. These included the two cement plants (Robin's and Swanscombe) that first manufactured Portland cement in the 1840s. The initial prospectus of the merger (in a time before anti-trust laws) was to unify the entire British cement industry, eliminating competition, and excluding imports. The attempt to achieve this 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). Armed with these, and its critical mass, the company expected to sweep all competition away.

However, the cement kiln 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 disastrous circumstances of the company 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 favored plants had been uprated, the majority of the original 35 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.