by Anne Hayes - Hills Group

Using the dry digging method,a tractor shovel can dig andload in one operationAnon-family member of great significance tothe company, Don Howard, was appointeddirector and general manager in 1969.His appointment ushered in aperiod of expansion and ofincreased profitability. Togetherwith Robert, he also changed themanagement ethos – the main thrust wasthat future family members should be content toreceive dividends rather than jobs.Unprofitable operations were improved or sold.Brickworks were closed, at Devizes in 1968 andat Badbury in 1970 but the land was retained.Accountancy procedures were improved; thecompany divested itself of the long distancehaulage companies; plant hire was reorganisedand the servicing workshop was scaled down.The non-investment in transportmarked the end of thetraditional “muck away”from building sites. Instead, investment was made in morespecialised waste disposal facilities – skips for hire.Perhaps the most important theme of the 1970s wasexpansion. It began with the purchase of T F Coke(Cheltenham) Ltd, then T S Thomas & Sons Ltd ofChepstow and Tintern. Sage & Down Ltd of Worle, nearWeston-super-Mare. Lulsgate Quarry, south of Bristol, wasalso bought to supply roadstone materials.The purchase in 1975 of Broadmoor Brickworks inCinderford, was to prove a catalyst. The brickworksbought liquid propane gas to fire the kilns direct fromShell at a vastly cheaper price than Hills was paying atPurton where its supplier was Calor Gas.Working at the Lulsgatequarry face near BristolGas tanks were installed at Purton and gas bought directfrom the oil companies. In 1976, Robert persuaded twoindependent distributors to buy their own bottles to befilled by Hills. These were Handygas, of Swindon, andSungas which distributed gas in Bristol. Hills went on tobuy both in 1978 and 1979. By 1987, following thesetting up of a South Wales depot and the acquisition ofEverygas Ltd in Devon, the Handygas empire stretchedfrom South Wales through the Thames Valley to Devon.Shareholders and directorsat the 80th anniversarydinner at the GoddardArms Hotel, SwindonTwo years later, multi-national oil companies werecompeting to buy companies such as Handygas. BP madeHills an offer it couldn’t refuse.Hills bought Handygas in 197815