History
James Hardie immigrated to Australia in 1888 from Linlithgow, Scotland, and created a business importing oils and animal hides. Andrew Reid, also from Linlithgow, came to join Hardie in Melbourne, and became a full partner in 1895. When Hardie retired in 1911, he sold his half of the business to Reid.
James Hardie Industries Ltd first listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1951.
For much of the twentieth century, James Hardie was the dominant manufacturer in Australia of asbestos cement sheet and other related building products which used asbestos as a reinforcing material. As concern grew about the serious adverse health effects of asbestos, in the mid 1980s James Hardie pioneered the development of asbestos-free fibre cement technology, and began designing and manufacturing a wide range of fibre cement building products that made use of the acknowledged durability, versatility and relative strength of fibre cement, without the dangers associated with asbestos.
In December 2001, the company shareholders unanimously voted to restructure and relocate the company in the Netherlands as a parent company. This was part of a strategy to separate the company from the stigma of its asbestos liabilities.
On 19 February 2010, James Hardie moved its corporate domicile from The Netherlands to Ireland, in a transaction designed to transform James Hardie Industries NV into an Irish Societas Europea company, and James Hardie Industries NV became James Hardie Industries SE. The final stage of the move was completed on 17 June 2010.
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