Aggregate Industries has reduced its workforce by 7% over the last two years, from 4,143 full time equivalent employees in 2016 to 3845 in 2018, its latest sustainability report shows.
Not only that. The company has gone from recruiting an average of 40 apprentices in each of the previous three years, to recruiting just 4 in 2018. It has gone from having 43% of the workforce in the over 50s age bracket in 2017, to just 21% in 2018. The company has even lost its Head of Sustainability, by the look of things.
Parent company, LafargeHolcim, is no doubt driving for a higher return from its UK outpost. However, the UK is obviously not a favourable place to invest in at the moment – whilst there are numerous growth opportunities for cement conglomerates elsewhere in the world.
In a sure sign that things aren't pretty in the UK, AI has given up reporting production figures in its sustainability report. The company had previously disclosed such figures, at least as far back as 2000.
The company has also been renting off excess regional office space at Croft Quarry, near Hinckley, to raise £50k pa.
Tim Claxton, Regional Estates Manager at Aggregate Industries, said: "Our office complex provides several advantages: substantial office space spread across several former agricultural buildings, in a pleasant village location with good parking provision."
Croft Quarry is not closing down. Far from it. As the Leicester Mercury reports:
The firm is seeking to extend the quarry – a huge hole in the ground covering 81 acres - to release 6.3 million more tonnes of aggregate in a process that could take up to 20 years.
In plans expected to be completed by 2052, it also wants to fill the huge hole with 22 million tonnes of waste – including from HS2. AI plans to dump:
London’s waste over the next ten years, waste generated from HS2 and then expand into other major infrastructure projects across the UK utilising rail as a principle form of transport.
Environmental campaigners have raised concerns about polluting groundwater. AI says:
We take our environmental responsibilities incredibly seriously, and, as such, are audited by the relevant local authorities several times each year, and the planning application for this project will be supported by a full environmental impact assessment which will disclose any and all impacts on the local environment including ecology and local water sources.
From the goings-on at Straitgate, we know all about how seriously AI take local water sources.
We have digressed. AI is no doubt feeling the pain. Yesterday it was reported that the construction downturn is intensifying:
Construction new orders saw their biggest drop for 10 years last month, while the lack of business optimism has not been so bleak since December 2008
Uncertainty surrounds future big infrastructure projects. The latest news on HS2 – Britain’s biggest construction project – will not have helped: the review, the delays, the ballooning budget, the cover up. Many commentators see the outlook for HS2 as bleak. AI's cheerleader, the MPA, says the HS2 uncertainty "beggars belief":
Our members have invested in detailed planning and improved capacity to supply the tens of millions of tonnes of materials required for this major public infrastructure project. We are most concerned to see yet more delay and uncertainty over HS2. The Government should decide promptly, commit firmly and deliver the project on time.
This being the largest deforestation programme since World War 1, where ancient woodlands are replaced with saplings – large proportions of which have died.
HS2 will be the largest deforestation programme since World War 1 ! If we continue to destroy nature like this we won't survive ourselves . We won't need to get from London to Birmingham 20 mins faster . Write to your MP and @BorisJohnson here . https://t.co/0mChjD7fRf Please RT pic.twitter.com/TuLXKho7IC— Chris Packham (@ChrisGPackham) July 29, 2019
We have digressed again.
