Sherburn made an underlying profit of £1.8m from £16m sales this year

Breedon will pay £15.7m for the heavyside building materials business which is headquartered in County Durham and employs around 110 people. 

Sherburn operates four quarries and five ready-mixed concrete plants in County Durham, Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Cumbria. 

It also distributes cementitious products from two import terminals at Blyth near Newcastle and Dundee in eastern Scotland.

Sherburn achieved revenues of £16.1m last year and boasts more than 21m tonnes of mineral reserves and resources, together with significant cement storage capacity at its two terminals.

Paul Allison, Sherburn’s current Managing Director and a minority shareholder, will remain with the business as a consultant.

Pat Ward, Breedon’s chief executive, said: “Following our acquisition of Hope earlier this year, which significantly expanded our geographical footprint in the north of England, Sherburn is a perfect infill acquisition for us.  It gives us additional mineral reserves and access to new markets for our aggregates and concrete, as well as a first-rate workforce.

“It also complements our existing cement plant at Hope and will enable us to expand our cementitious business through the importation of cement and ground granulated blast-furnace slag through Sherburn’s two strategically located terminals in north-east England and eastern Scotland.”

In a trading statement this morning Breedon a three  three-month contribution from the former Hope Construction Materials business it acquired had seen group revenue soar by a third in the last 10 months to £361m.

Assuming that weather conditions remain favourable for the remainder of the financial year, the Group’s underlying EBIT for the full year is expected to be ahead of current market expectations.