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[September 2001]
'Strength to Strength' is Message from Merged Mineral Companies
It is confirmed that on 1 October 2001, Watts Blake Bearne & Co PLC (WBB) and Sibelco Minerals and Chemicals Ltd (SMC) will be merged into what they call "a new dynamic force in the market". The merged business will be called WBB Minerals and will have annual sales revenues of just over £200 million. Its total sales volume of almost 11 million tonnes annually is composed of approximately equal amounts of white firing clays, red firing clays and industrial sands.
WBB Minerals operates over 30 sites and has facilities in 10 countries throughout Europe, with significant strength in the UK, Germany and Spain. The company supplies over 6,000 customers, primarily in ceramics, glass, foundry/metallurgical industries and also value-added building and construction. Two-thirds of its total sales are through exports to over 60 countries world-wide.
Both WBB and SMC were acquired by the Belgian Sibelco Group in recent years. Both companies are proud of their strong market reputations for the reliable supply of products of consistent high quality. They add: "Now WBB Minerals draws together their individual strengths as specialised technical leaders in processing economically important natural raw material resources. The new Company is better placed than ever before to offer customers the complete raw material solutions they are seeking. They will also benefit from strong and skilled technical support, based in WBB Minerals' expanded central laboratory facilities in Staffordshire".
WBB Minerals' international administrative centre will be at Brookside Hall in Sandbach, Cheshire - a superb head office facility, central to its UK operations and ideally located for international travel through its proximity to Manchester Airport. Key staff are being relocated from WBB's former headquarters in Newton Abbot, Devon to combine their skills and experience with that of their colleagues from SMC. Together, says the company, the new WBB Minerals organisation is determined to adopt a "one business, one team" approach , building on the best of the past, but recognising the need to look forward in everything it does.
ENDS