BPB Ltd (formerly BPB plc) (British Plaster Board) was a British building materials business. It was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until 2005, when company was purchased by Saint-Gobain of France.

History

Inter-war period

The development of plasterboard (a sandwich of gypsum plaster between two sheets of paper) dates back to the late nineteenth century in the US. The first patent was granted in 1894. However, it was not until an American, Frank Culver, persuaded his new employer, Thomas McGhie and Sons, to buy a plasterboard plant from the US that plasterboard was introduced to Britain. A site was acquired at Wallasey Cheshire and building started in 1916. However, McGhie's shareholders could not supply sufficient funding and, in 1917, the plasterboard assets were sold to a new company, British Plaster Board Limited.

The British building industry was initially slow to adopt the new product. Helped by a more modern plant, purchased in 1927, sales gradually increased and, by 1932, the Company was able to float on the London Stock Exchange. The additional capital enabled BPB to build a new factory at Erith in 1934; this new plant had the capacity to manufacture the gypsum plaster (the core of the plasterboard product) and BPB began importing gypsum rock from Canada. This encouraged negotiations with other gypsum companies in Britain and a rapid series of take-overs followed over the next two years, which made BPB the dominant force in the industry. In particular, these included the Gotham Company with plaster works in the north of England, and The Gypsum Mines Limited, with its large gypsum mine at Mountfield, Sussex.

Post-war activities

In 1944, BPB acquired its large rival, Gyproc Products Limited.

In 1987, BPB bought Rigips, a well-known brand in Austria, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In April 1996, it acquired Borgadts of Germany for £21 million. In June 1996, it bought Gypsum Industries of South Africa for £28 million. In October 1998, it purchased Gyproc of Scandinavia for £95 million, already having a joint venture called Scancem. In March 2000, BPB bought Heidelberger Dammsysteme of Germany, which made polystyrene insulation, for £22 million. In June 2000, it acquired the Celotex company of the US, which made ceiling tiles, for £230 million. In January 2001, it bought Rawlplug Ltd. for £27 million. In October 2002, it acquired Gyproc Benelux of Belgium for £52 million.

In March 2002, it acquired James Hardie Industries, another US business, for £245 million.

Takeover

Starting in May 1996, BPB operated a joint venture with the French company Saint-Gobain that produced glass fibre insulation. During August 2005, BPB received a hostile takeover bid from Saint-Gobain, which set a price of 720 pence per share. The board of BPB initially resisted this strongly, but eventually accepted a revised bid of 775 pence per share, which valued the company at £3.9billion (US$6.7 billion).

Operations

The company's subsidiary British Gypsum, which was the UK operating arm of the company, operates as a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, with five manufacturing sites in Britain as of 2012.

thumb|British Gypsum at Kirkby Thore

References

  • Official site
  • British Gypsum
  • Parent Company

News items

  • BPB accepts French bid in November 2005
  • Hostile bid in August 2005
  • Fined in November 2002