2009 Annual Report - CRH

Mark Towe
Chief Executive Officer
The Americas
Americas Materials
Americas Materials faced a very challenging
environment in 2009 with severe volume declines
across all product lines. The benefit of lower
energy costs along with aggressive actions to
reduce fixed cost, improve operating efficiency
and increase prices yielded higher operating
margins. US Dollar sales revenue and operating
profit declined 19% and 16% respectively, and
the operating profit margin for the Division
increased by 0.3 percentage points to 9.5%.
Operations Review
Doug Black
Chief Executive Officer
Americas Materials
The Federal stimulus bill provided some additional public projects for our asphalt and
paving business, yet continued weakness in residential, commercial and state/local
infrastructure construction resulted in volume declines of 23% in aggregates, 15% in
asphalt, 32% in readymixed concrete, and a 14% drop in construction revenue.
Aggregates and readymixed concrete selling prices rose 6% and 3% respectively,
while our asphalt operations saw prices decline 2% reflecting lower input costs.
Efforts that began in early 2008 to systematically execute commercial and operating
best practices delivered excellent results in 2009. Coupled with aggressive fixed cost
reductions, these fundamental changes are now ingrained in our culture and will yield
more significant benefits as the economy strengthens.
Results
% of
€ million Group 2009 2008 Change Organic Acquisitions Restructuring Impairments Exchange
Sales Revenue 25% 4,280 5,007 (727) (1,024) 25 – – 272
EBITDA* 37% 670 724 (54) (87) 5 (11) – 39
Operating Profit* 43% 407 462 (55) (72) 3 (11) – 25
Average Net Assets 4,515 4,379
EBITDA Margin 15.7% 14.5%
Operating Profit Margin 9.5% 9.2%
* EBITDA and Operating Profit exclude profit on disposal
of non-current assets
Analysis of Change
CRH 29