Mixamate Provides Analysis on OFT Decision in Concrete Magazine
Mixamate Managing Director and Founding Member of the Batched on Site Association, Chris Smith, was this month interviewed by Concrete Magazine to provide his expert analysis on the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT) decision to investigate the industry.
In August of this year, the OFT formerly requested a Competition Commission investigation into the aggregates, cement and ready-mixed sectors, amidst growing concerns over a lack of competition in the industry.
Sales of concrete, cement and aggregates were worth a combined total of £3.4bn in 2009. It is believed that just five providers now account for 90% of the cement market, 75% of aggregates and 68% of ready-mix concrete – a situation that has prompted OFT Chief Executive, John Fingleton, to raise concerns: "We are concerned that competition is not working well in these sectors."
Previously featured by the BBC and throughout the national press, this situation is being treated very seriously by the industry, and featured as the main story in the October issue of Concrete Magazine, the Concrete Society’s flagship publication.
As the UK’s leading provider of mix on site concrete and screed, Mixamate were featured heavily in the article, as Chris offered a unique insight into the situation:
“Right at the summit of the ready-mix sector you are talking about national and Global organisations that are operating along every step of the supply chain from quarry to delivery. Therefore if you’re a smaller organisation trying to get a toehold in just one area of this supply chain there is an argument to be made that it can be very difficult to compete.”
“However, whether or not that is right or wrong is a very difficult thing to argue because in a sense you are talking about two different business models coming into contact in the same sector. This idea of looking at the entire supply chain versus the individual service industries it contains will be a key focus for the regulators in determining how to proceed.”
With referral to the Competition Commission still pending the industry is awaiting further developments. In the meantime, stay tuned to the Concrete Mix for further updates and insights from the Mixamate team.
