thumb|Cement transport wagon of French subsidiary EQIOM
CRH plc (an acronym for Cement Roadstone Holdings; apparently pronounced "Cee Orr Haitch") is a building materials provider headquartered in Dublin. CRH produces construction materials, primarily aggregates and cement, and manufactures ready-mixed concrete, asphalt concrete, and infrastructural components, of which it is one of the largest suppliers in North America. CRH operates 3,961 locations in 28 countries, including North America (75% of 2025 net income), Europe, Australia, and the Philippines. and 290th on the Forbes Global 2000.
CRH is a founding member of the Global Cement and Concrete Association. The company's then CEO, Albert Manifold, was the GCCA's first president in 2018.
History
1970–1980s: formation and listings
CRH (Cement Roadstone Holdings) was established in 1970 through the merger of Cement Ltd (est. 1936) and Roadstone Ltd (est. 1949). The company listed on the Irish Stock Exchange in 1973.
CRH entered the United States market in 1978 by acquiring Amcor, a Utah-based concrete products group, which became Oldcastle Inc. The company expanded its U.S. presence in 1985 with the acquisition of Callanan Industries, a New York State aggregates producer. Further expansion included operations in Ukraine, including the purchase of Mykolaiv Cement In February 2015, the company acquired assets worth US$6.5 billion from LafargeHolcim, becoming the world's third-largest building materials group by market value. This acquisition almost tripled CRH's net debt, bringing it to €6.6 billion. The acquisition complemented CRH's existing North American Building Envelope division, which employed 4,500 people at the time.
As of November 2016, half the asphalt, aggregates and assorted material it sold went to the United States. At that time, CRH was the biggest producer of asphalt in the US and the third largest producer of ready-mixed concrete according to the Financial Times.
As of 27 April 2017, CRH was Ireland's biggest company.
Over the earlier part of 2018, CRH spent €500 million on eight acquisitions. Also in 2017, CRH sold Allied Building Products to Beacon Roofing Supply for $2.6 billion. By the end of 2017, the biggest acquisition was Fels-Werke GmbH, a German leading lime and aggregates business with 1 billion tonnes of high-quality limestone reserves, 11 production locations, nine in Germany and one in both the Czech Republic and Russia.
In 2018, CRH purchased Ash Grove Cement Company,
2020s
In 2021, CRH invested $1.5 billion in twenty acquisitions, including Angel Brother Enterprises, a Texas-based asphalt paving and infrastructure company, and National Pipe & Plastics Inc., a New York-based manufacturer of water infrastructure and electrical conduit products.
In February 2022, CRH sold its Building Envelope business to KPS Capital Partners for $3.8 billion. In June, the company acquired Barette Outdoor Living, an Ohio-based manufacturer with ten U.S. facilities, from TorQuest Partners and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec for $1.9 billion.
Following a shareholder vote in June 2023, CRH transferred its primary stock listing from the London Stock Exchange to the New York Stock Exchange. In August 2023, the company expanded its Texas operations through the acquisition of cement and concrete assets from Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. The purchase included the Hunter Cement Plant, with a 2.1 million ton annual capacity, serving Austin and San Antonio markets, multiple terminals along Texas's eastern gulf coast, and twenty ready-mixed concrete plants.
Acquisitions
{| class="wikitable sortable"
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! scope="col" | Date
! scope="col" style="width:150px;" | Company
! scope="col" | Price / Notes
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Ref(s).
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| Amcor
| Utah-based concrete products group, which became Oldcastle Inc.
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| Callanan Industries
| New York State-based aggregates producer
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| Betco Block & Products
| Based in Bethesda, Maryland
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| Balf
| Based in Connecticut
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| Lebanon Rock
| Based in Pennsylvania
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| Tilcon
| Seller was BTR plc; price was $329 million
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| Raboni and 80% of Prefaest
| French companies; price was £14.3 million
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| Holding Cement Polski
| Expansion to Eastern Europe; first cement manufacturing operation outside Ireland
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| Podilsky Cement
| Based in Ukraine; €210 million invested in 2007 to cut carbon emissions; new kiln commissioned in 2011
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| Finnsementti and Lohja Rudus
| Based in Finland; price was SEK3,550 million
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| Shelly Group
| Based in Ohio; price was $362 million
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| Dolomite Group and Northern Ohio Paving Company
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| Jura Group
| Entered Switzerland; Price was €425 million
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| Mount Hope Rock Products
| New Jersey quarry firm; price was £138 million
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| 25% of Mashav
| Israel's only cement firm; price was $48 million; sold in 2016
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| Hallet Materials and Des Moines Asphalt & Paving Company
| Price was $74.9 million
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| 49% stake in Secil
| Portuguese cement producer; price was €429 million; sold to Semapa in 2012 for €574m
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| Harbin Sanling Cement Company, owner of a cement factory in Heilongjiang
| Entered China market
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| Ashland Paving And Construction
| Based in Atlanta; price was $1.3 billion, largest deal to date; seller was Ashland Global
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| 5 plants in Northeast Ohio
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| Remaining 55% of Cementbouw
| Total investment was €184 million
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| Conrad Yelvington Distributors, Eugene Sand & Gravel, Cessford Construction, and McMinn's Asphalt and Prospect Aggregates
| Total price was $350 million
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| US Concrete's operations in Knoxville, Tennessee and Wyoming, Delaware
| Price was $16.5 million
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| Pavestone
| Landscape paver; price was $540 million
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| 26% stake in Yatai Group's cement operation
| Based in China; price was 2.13 billion yuan
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| 50% of My Home Industries
| Entered India; price was €290 million; sold in December 2019 for €300 million
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| Mykolaiv Cement
| Based in Ukraine; price was €96 million
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| CR Laurence
| Glazing company based in California; price was $1.3 billion
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| Ash Grove Cement Company
| Cement manufacturer headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas; price was $3.5 billion
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| Fels-Werke GmbH
| German lime and aggregates business; price was €600m, acquired from Xella; sold in 2023 for $1.1 billion
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| National Pipe & Plastics
| PVC pipes for water and wastewater
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| Angel Brothers asphalt paving
| Producer of asphalt, liquid asphalt, recycled concrete aggregates and asphalt paving
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| Barette Outdoor Living
| Ohio-based manufacturer with ten U.S. facilities; price was $1.9 billion
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| Cement and concrete assets from Martin Marietta Materials
| Included Hunter Cement Plant, with a 2.1 million ton annual capacity, serving Austin and San Antonio markets, multiple terminals along Texas's eastern gulf coast, and twenty ready-mixed concrete plants.
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| Ary Corporation
| Provider of building materials headquartered in Canon City, Colorado
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| Dutra Materials
| Asphalt production capabilities in northern California
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| Civilmart
| Australian precast concrete products maker
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| Eco Material Technologies
| North America's largest supplier of supplementary cementitious materials; price was $2.1 billion
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| North American Aggregates
| Supplier of aggregates in New Jersey
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|}
Financial performance
The following is a summary of financial data:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! !! 2025 !! 2024 !! 2023 !! 2022 !! 2021 !! 2020 !! 2019 !! 2018 !! 2017 !! 2016 !! 2015 !! 2014 !! 2013 !! 2012 !! 2011 !! 2010 !! 2009 !! 2008 !! 2007 !! 2006 !! 2005 !! 2004
|-
| Currency || US$m || US$m || US$m || US$m || US$m || US$m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m || €m
|-
| Revenue || 37,447 || 35,572 || 34,949 || 32,723 || 30,981 || 27,587 || 25,129 || 26,790 || 27,563 || 27,104 || 23,635 || 18,912 || 18,031|| 18,659|| 18,081|| 17,173|| 17,373|| 20,887|| 20,992|| 18,737|| 14,449|| 12,755
|-
| EBITDA || 7,596 || 6,723 || 5,819 || 5,651 || 5,350 || 4,630 || 4,000 || 3,365 || 3,310 || 3,130|| 2,219 || 1,641 || 1,475|| 1,640|| 1,656|| 1,615|| 1,803|| 2,665|| 2,860|| 2,456|| 1,957|| 1,740
|-
| Depreciation || 2,156 || 1,798 || 1,633 || 1,644 || 1,691 || 1,624 || 1,442 || 1,071 || 1,006 || 1,032 || 887 || 680 ||725 || 748|| 742|| 786|| 794|| 781|| 739|| 664|| 556|| 516
|-
| Amortisation || 0 || 0 || 0 || 113 || 74 || 743 || 64 || 117 || 66 || 71 || 55 || 44 || 650|| 47|| 43|| 131|| 54|| 43|| 35|| 25|| 9|| 4
|-
| EBIT || 5,440 || 4,925 || 4,186 || 3,894 || 3,585 || 2,263 || 2,494 || 2,177 || 2,238 ||2,027 ||1,277 || 917 || 100|| 845|| 871|| 698|| 955|| 1,841 || 2,086|| 1,767|| 1,392|| 1,220
|-
| Profit on Disposals || 0 || 0 || 0 || (49) || 119 || 9 || (1) || (24) || 59 || 55 || 101 || 77 || 26|| 230|| 55|| 55|| 26|| 69|| 57|| 40|| 20 || 11
|-
| Profit before Finance costs || 5,440 || 4,925 || 4,186 || 3,845 || 3,704 || 2,272 || 2,493 || 2,153 || 2,297 || 2,082 || 1,378 || 994 || 126|| 1,075 || 926 || 753 || 981|| 1,910|| 2,143|| 1,807|| 1,412|| 1,231
|-
| Finance costs (net) || (635) || (211) || (172) || (376) || (417) || (490) || (438) || (351) || (349) || (383) || (389) || (288) || (297)|| (289)|| (257)|| (247)|| (297)|| (343)|| (303)|| (252)|| (159)|| (146)
|-
| Associates || 26 || (108) || (17) || 0 || 55 || (118) || 60 || 60 || 65 || 42 || 44 || 55 || (44)|| (112)|| 42|| 28|| 48|| 61|| 64|| 47|| 26|| 19
|-
| Profit Before Tax || 4,831 || 4,606 || 3,997 || 3,469 || 3,342 || 1,664 || 2,115 || 1,862 || 2,013 ||1,741 || 1,033 || 761 || (215)|| 674|| 711|| 534|| 732|| 1,628|| 1,904|| 1,602|| 1,279|| 1,104
|-
| Income Tax || (1,041) || (1,085) || (925) || (785) || (721) || (499) || (477) || (426) || (94) || (471) || (304) || (177) || (80)|| (120)|| (114)|| (95)|| (134)|| (366)|| (466)|| (378)|| (273)|| (232)
|-
| Profit after tax || 3,790 || 3,521 || 3,072 || 2,684 || 2,621 || 1,165 || 1,638 || 1,436 || 1,919 || 1,270 || 729 || 584 || (295)|| 554|| 597|| 439|| 598|| 1,262|| 1,438|| 1,224|| 1,006|| 872
|}
Notable projects
Notable projects involving CRH materials and services include the resurfacing of the Silverstone Circuit, the Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge, the underground rainwater detention system at the Truist Park, repaving of the Crawlerway at the Kennedy Space Center, and expansion of the West Davis Highway in Utah.
Structure
CRH is split into two Divisions, CRH Americas and CRH International. The Americas Division consists of two segments: Americas Materials Solutions and Americas Building Solutions. This division employs approximately 47,400 people, representing 59.1% of CRH's total workforce, and operates 2,008 locations which account for 57% of the company's global locations. The company reported processing 43.9 million metric tons of industrial byproducts and waste as raw materials and fuels, using 164 times more external waste than it produced.
In May 2024, CRH set a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, aiming for net-zero emissions by 2050.
In November 2023, CRH signed a memorandum of understanding with Volvo to develop net-zero emissions vehicles and equipment used in construction.
Philanthropy
In early 2024, CRH launched a five-year, $15 million program with UNICEF to improve access to vaccines against life-threatening diseases for over 1.2 million children.
Legal issues
Anti-trust accusations
Poland
In Poland in 2007, CRH was fined €530,000 by the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for interfering with evidence that Polish authorities were gathering for a price-fixing investigation. In 2009, Grupa Ożarów (in which CRH first invested in 1995) was fined €26 million for operating a price fixing cartel in Poland. The Polish Competition Regulator stated that seven companies, which accounted for almost 100% of the market, had fixed minimum prices for grey cement and agreed on a market share for each operator. CRH has stated its belief that Ozarów operated an independent commercial policy in Poland and the fine was appealed. In December 2013, a Polish court upheld the fine.
Ireland
In Ireland in 1994, Irish Cement Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of CRH, was determined by the European Commission to be part of price fixing and market sharing cartel across Europe which it said had illegally and artificially inflated the price of cement throughout the continent. A fine of over €3.5 million was levied.
In Ireland in 1996, High Court proceedings were initiated against CRH, its subsidiaries and two competitors in which the plaintiffs accused CRH and the others of operating a cartel and employing an illegal and anti-competitive eviction strategy in order to put them out of business.
In July 2012, the claim was dismissed on the basis of the "inordinate and inexcusable delay" in bringing forward any evidence in the case.
That judgement was appealed to the Supreme Court of Ireland in 2012. At the time of the appeal, it emerged that the presiding judge in the proceedings owned some shares in CRH and was forced to stand down. The appeals were dismissed by the court by 2014.
In 2005, opposition Teachta Dála (Irish member of parliament) Phil Hogan, who later became Minister for Environment, stated that "there is a widespread problem with competition in this economy... In the case of CRH, profits have been extracted from the Irish economy by means of a complex industry structure that is both anti-competitive and anti-consumer. The European Court of First Instance and finally the European Court of Justice have upheld findings of serious anti-competitive behaviour against CRH and other. While Sweden, Finland, UK, France and Germany have since levied huge fines against the cement industry, Ireland’s answer has been a stony silence."
In June 2012, TD Shane Ross urged an investigation into the company.
In February 2020, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission closed its investigation into purchasing arrangements in the bagged cement sector and took no action due to lack of evidence.
United States
In 2006, in the case of Jensen Enterprises Inc. v. Oldcastle Precast, Inc., et al., an antitrust lawsuit was filed in California against CRH subsidiary Oldcastle Precast and three affiliates of AT&T. The defendants were alleged to have unreasonably restrained trade and conspired to monopolize telephone vaults for land-line connections. Plaintiffs challenged a contract requiring developers to purchase Oldcastle Precast product for properties served by AT&T infrastructure. They contended the arrangement led to Oldcastle Precast capturing northern California sales of precast electrical vaults, which were often placed concurrently with telephone structures. In 2010, an American Court of Appeal ruled that the plaintiff's counsel had failed to provide enough evidence to show that the defendants harmed competition in California and Nevada telephone vault markets.
In October 2009, a cement and concrete price fixing class action lawsuit was filed in Florida against Oldcastle Materials and others. The claim alleged that the defendants eliminated competition in the market for cement and concrete by charging artificially high prices from at least the period 2000 to 2009. The claim further alleged that the conspiracy was facilitated through in-personal meetings, telephone conversations and other communications. In 2008, the defendants announced uniform price increases for concrete and cement, bringing their prices to the same level at the same time, the lawsuit claimed. Then, in September, the defendants cut the price of concrete in an effort to lure customers away from independently owned concrete firms. The lawsuit stated that the practices alleged in the cement and concrete industry were clearly illegal. In 2012, the case was settled for undisclosed terms.
In April 2014, an Oldcastle Materials construction zone in Cleveland, Ohio was described as "ridiculously dangerous" in a lawsuit concerning the death of Randy Roginski on 27 July 2010. His family was awarded $19 million compensation and the CRH-related Shelly Company was fined $20 million in punitive damages.
In 2017, CRH was accused of exercising significant market power in West Virginia through a series of acquisitions and anticompetitive actions that increased prices for state road paving contracts in the three markets in the state between 2010 and 2014. Under a settlement reached in October 2020, CRH subsidiaries West Virginia Paving, Kelly Paving and American Asphalt made a combined, upfront payment of $30.35 million to governments and West Virginia Paving agreed to provide the state an additional $71 million in credits that can be applied to already completed, yet unpaid, road projects and future work over the following seven years.
Other allegations
Poland
In 2005, a Polish businessman, Marek Dochnal, alleged to a Polish Parliamentary Inquiry that he had arranged a bribe of almost $1 million for CRH to a former minister for privatisation, Wieslaw Kaczmarek, in connection with the privatisation of a cement plant at Ozarow, in central Poland, in 1995. CRH, which now owns and operates the cement plant at Ozarow, said the allegations were "without foundation".
It was also revealed in June 2005 that CRH contributed €125,000 to a charity founded by the wife of Poland's president, Jolanta Kwasniewska. Both CRH and the Polish first lady denied any sinister motive behind the transaction.
Ireland
In 2003, CRH was accused of making payments to Ireland's former Taoiseach Charles Haughey as details emerged of how Haughey received payments from various companies and businessmen in return for political favours. In 1969, Roadstone, later acquired by CRH, sold 80 acres of land to Haughey, the then Minister of Finance, for £120,000. In 1973, Haughey sold 17.5 acres of that land back to CRH for £140,000. Within four years, Haughey had made a net profit of £20,000 and 62.5 acres at CRH's expense.
Charles Haughey was offered chairmanship of CRH in 1972.
The bank was founded in the 1970s and was being run by Des Traynor who was chairman of CRH from 1989 to 1994 and who ran his bank during that period out of CRH's registered office in Dublin's Fitzwilliam Square where the company provided an office for its chairman. Traynor was also personal financier to Charles Haughey.
During the investigation it materialised that Justice Moriarty held approximately £500,000 in CRH shares and while that in his opinion precluded him from investigating certain matters concerning CRH he was not, he said, precluded from inquiring into banking activities conducted from Des Traynor's offices at Fitzwilliam Square.
In 1999, as evidence on the scale of the Ansbacher accounts grew Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) and PD Minister Mary Harney asked the High Court to appoint inspectors who could identify the account holders.
The High Court Inspectors' report was published in June 2002. It found that eight out of fifteen CRH directors held Ansbacher accounts, including four former chairmen. It also concluded (Chapter 15, p. 189) that "CRH as a corporation cannot be said to have knowingly assisted in the carrying out of Ansbacher’s activities in Ireland".
Sale of Glen Ding Lands
In 1998, Dáil Éireann (Ireland's Parliament) voted against an investigation into why an asset with the potential to produce a yield of £48 million in terms of sand and gravel reserves was sold to Roadstone, a subsidiary company of CRH, without public tender for £1.25 million in 1991.
Many opposition members of parliament voiced concerns that at the time of sale, Charles Haughey was Taoiseach and his financier Des Traynor was Chairman of CRH. Dáil Éireann voted not to investigate whether CRH had donated funds to any political party or politician before or after the purchase of Glen Ding.
The State's Comptroller and Auditor General conducted an investigation into the sale and found that the competing bid fell "far short of" the Roadstone offer and that "The Department acted at all times in the best commercial interests of the State" (Section 9.6). It also noted "even though it is unlikely that the Roadstone offer would have been bettered. The attraction of concluding the sale at what was considered a good price outweighed the imperative to act evenhandedly which is a basic principle when the State is doing business". It was noted by the Department's Accounting Officer that the Roadstone offer "was more than 50% above the only alternative offer received", that another bidder "was afforded every opportunity" to make a better offer and that given subsequent delays and planning issues. "In retrospect the deal had proved to be exceptional".
The Glen Ding transaction was further investigated by the Moriarty Tribunal which in 2006 reported its conclusion "that there was no connection, directly or indirectly, between Charles Haughey and any aspect of the disposal, nor any connection between the operation of the Ansbacher accounts and any aspect of the disposal.