Breedon Group seeking more Irish acquisitions
British construction materials company Breedon Group is viewing Ireland as "a platform for growth" as it looks for more acquisitions here.
Breedon entered Ireland last year via the near €530m acquisition of housebuilding and aggregates business the Lagan Group.
It trades in the Republic under the Lagan name and in the North as Whitemountain.
The combined Irish business generated earnings of £20.9m (€24.3m) last year and revenues of £156.3m.
Lagan now operates as a fully-integrated aggregates, downstream products and contracting services business.
A spokesperson for Breedon said the company has a healthy pipeline of acquisition opportunities.
"Over the longer-term we aim to increase the scale of our aggregates business in the Republic of Ireland...We will also be reviewing potential bolt-on acquisition opportunities as we seek to build on and extend our platform in the Republic," Breedon said.
Lagan undertook a number of major contracts, here, during the year including several substantial resurfacing projects - including the second runway at Dublin Airport, sections of the M1 motorway, and the New Ross bypass in Co Wexford.
Market conditions in the Republic improved substantially during the year. The volume of Government maintenance contracts tendered increased by 65% and Lagan saw continued improvement in the private sector, especially in the Greater Dublin area.
"As the year progressed, this began to spread to other major conurbations, including Cork, Galway and Limerick," Breedon said.
