Heidelberg Materials UK

The UK arm (formerly Hanson) of a global building materials group, supplying aggregates, cement, asphalt and concrete, headquartered in Maidenhead.

About Heidelberg Materials UK

Heidelberg Materials UK supplies heavy building materials: aggregates, asphalt and recycling, cement and GGBS (a cement replacement that cuts carbon), packed products, ready-mixed concrete and contracting services. Its website says it has over 300 manufacturing sites and more than 4,000 employees in the UK, organised into three business lines: aggregates, asphalt and recycling; cement; and concrete. It is part of a worldwide group with around 51,000 employees at almost 3,000 locations in more than 50 countries.

The business was known for many years as Hanson. According to Wikipedia, James Hanson, later Lord Hanson, and Gordon White, later Baron White of Hull, turned the Wiles Group into Hanson Trust in 1964, and it became a very large company before splitting in 1996. HeidelbergCement bought Hanson in 2007, and in 2023 the UK business was rebranded as Heidelberg Materials. The company's tagline is "Material to build our future". It says it wants to lead the industry towards carbon neutrality and the circular economy, where materials are reused instead of thrown away.

The UK headquarters is in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The company serves the large cities of England and Wales and the central belt of Scotland. Its Padeswood cement works in north Wales is building the UK's first carbon capture facility at a cement works, which the company expects to complete in 2029, and Wikipedia mentions the Craig-yr-Hesg quarry near Pontypridd, where an extension has been approved through 2047. The website also lists a recycling site at Agecroft. It has a site finder for the full network.

On culture, the company's values pages name teamwork, working with customers as partners, innovation that can come from anyone regardless of seniority, and long-term thinking. It describes a safety-first approach and a "Safe and Inclusive" pillar in its sustainability reporting, with a confidential service, SpeakUp, for raising concerns. These are the company's own statements, and we have not checked them against staff experience.

The employer profile lists production workers, plant operators, technicians and drivers, as well as sales, IT, engineering and finance managers. A business with 300 sites needs people near most large towns, so jobs are not all in one region. If you are drawn to engineering, chemistry or environmental science, the push to make cement and concrete with much less carbon is one of the biggest practical challenges in construction, and this company is one of those working on it.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Crushed rock, sand, gravel, asphalt and recycled materials.', 'title': 'Aggregates, asphalt and recycling'}
• {'desc': 'Cement works and lower-carbon products, including the evoZero carbon-captured cement.', 'title': 'Cement and GGBS'}
• {'desc': 'Concrete supplied to sites across the UK, plus contracting services.', 'title': 'Ready-mixed concrete and contracting'}

Key facts

• Over 300 UK manufacturing sites and more than 4,000 UK employees (company website)
• Formerly Hanson UK; rebranded Heidelberg Materials in 2023; UK head office in Maidenhead
• Padeswood cement works is building the UK's first cement-works carbon capture facility, expected 2029
• Tagline: "Material to build our future"

Website: www.heidelbergmaterials.co.uk