Faced with competition concerns, Heidelberg Materials has agreed to sell four quarries and five readymix plants.
Hanson UK, as it then was, agreed the acquisition of Huntingdon-based Mick George back in December 2022. The proposed deal included four recycling facilities, eight waste transfer stations, 11 aggregates quarries and 10 ready-mixed concrete plants.
The Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) began looking into the deal last summer and found a threat to market competition in the supply of aggregates or ready-mix concrete in 18 local markets in the east of England and the East Midlands.
Heidelberg Materials (Hanson rebranded as Heidelberg last autumn) has agreed to dispose of its quarries in Needingworth (Huntingdon) and Earls Barton (Northampton) as well as Mick George’s Ringstead and Watlington quarries.
The readymix plants being sold are in Northampton, Market Harborough, Wellingborough, St Ives and Ely.
The CMA has approved the undertakings offered by Heidelberg Materials, saying that they are “appropriate to remedy, mitigate or prevent the substantial lessening of competition, or any adverse effect which has or may have resulted from the transaction, or maybe expected to result from it”.
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