The Holcim Group, legally known as Holcim Limited, (formerly known as LafargeHolcim)[2] is a Swiss multinational company that manufactures building materials. It has a presence in around 60 countries, and employs around 60,000 employees. Holcim operates four businesses segments: cement, aggregates, ready-mix concrete, and other products, including precast concrete, asphalt, mortar, and other building materials.
Originally, the company was established as LafargeHolcim by the merger on 10 July 2015 of Holcim and Lafarge, which had combined sales of CHF 26.7 billion in 2019.[3] In the 2020 Forbes Global 2000, it was ranked as the 280th largest public company in the world.[4]
History
The logo of LafargeHolcim from 2015 through 2021
On 7 April 2014, Lafarge and Holcim announced a merger project to create LafargeHolcim. With a combined market value exceeding $50 billion, the merger was the second largest announced worldwide in 2014.[5] On 10 July 2015, the two companies completed the merger and created LafargeHolcim.[6] On 15 July 2015, the new LafargeHolcim Group was officially launched.[7]
In June 2016, Le Monde reported that Lafarge paid taxes to ISIS middlemen in 2013 to 2014 to keep using their factory in Jalabiya, Northeastern Syria.[8][9][10] On 2 March 2017, the Board of Directors of LafargeHolcim issued a statement[11] indicating that the measures required to continue operations at the plant were unacceptable.
A comprehensive and independent investigation revealed significant errors in judgment that were inconsistent with the company's code of conduct and the company took action. There have been significant changes and developments made to the compliance program and infrastructure since the time of the alleged misconduct.
The former CEO, Eric Olsen, resigned in April 2017 because of the "strong tensions" incurred by the news.[12] However, an investigation conducted by Baker McKenzie concluded Olsen was not responsible for the payments.[13]
In an interview with the French newspapers LeFigaro, Beat Hess, chairman of the board said: "Unacceptable errors were made that the Group regrets and condemns. It's far easier to say this in hindsight but the Group certainly pulled out of Syria too late. All of this should have been avoided".[14]
In May 2017, Jan Jenisch was appointed as the new CEO of LafargeHolcim Group. In March 2018, Jan Jenisch announced a new strategy, Strategy 2022 – ‘Building for Growth’, which aims to drive profitable growth and simplify the business to deliver resilient returns and attractive value to stakeholders.
In May 2018, LafargeHolcim announced the next steps in the simplification of corporate organization. The corporate management positions in Switzerland will be moved to the company's Holderbank site and a new corporate office in Zug.[18]
In January 2019, LafargeHolcim completed the sale of its 80.6% stake in PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk, its Indonesian cement business, to Semen Indonesia Group for US$1.41 billion.[19]
During the summer, in July 2019, LafargeHolcim introduced Plants of Tomorrow, a four-year program that will see the utilization of automation technologies and robotics, artificial intelligence, predictive maintenance and digital-twin technologies across their entire cement production process.[20]
In August 2019, the firm announced a "commercial breakthrough for low-carbon cement", Solidia Concrete, which "reduces the overall carbon footprint in precast concrete by 70%".[21][22]
Later in the year, in Fall 2019, LafargeHolcim announced the allocation of 160 million Swiss francs ($161 million) on 80 projects across Europe to cut annual emissions from its cement manufacturing processes by 15% by 2022.[23]
In September 2020, LafargeHolcim joins the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) “Business Ambition for 1.5°C”[24] becoming the first global building materials company to sign the pledge with intermediate targets for 2030, validated by SBTi.[25]
On May 4, 2021, shareholders voted on changing the company name back to Holcim.[26] The new identity of the company was launched on July 8, 2021.[27] This name change applies only to the group company name with all market brands remaining in existence.
In May 2022, Adani Group acquired Holcim's stake in Ambuja Cements and ACC for US$10.5 billion.[29] The sale marked Holcim's exit from India after 17 years of operations as part of a strategy to focus on core markets.[30]
In January 2024, Holcim announced plans to spin off 100% of its North American operations. It also announced Miljan Gutovic, the current head of Europe at Holcim, would replace Jan Jenisch as CEO beginning May 1, 2024.[31]
Operational
Holcim Group operates in around seventy countries, and focuses on cement, aggregates, ready mix and solutions[buzzword] & products. It is a global partner for major infrastructure projects – roads, mines, ports, dams, data centers, stadiums, wind farms, or electric power plants that require major investments.
The group employs around 70,000 people around the world, and reach a combined net sales of CHF 26.7 billion in 2019.[32] The group's central functions had been divided between Zurich and Paris until the end of 2018, but are currently being transferred to the Swiss cities of Holderbank and Zug.[33] The company's research facilities are in l'Isle d'Abeau, near Lyon, France.
Headquartered in Switzerland and listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange, Holcim Group holds leading positions in all regions across the globe. The building materials market is driven by massive global population growth, the shift towards city and urban living[34] and the infrastructure, the highways, bridges, hospitals and schools, that growing populations require.
Management
Miljan Gutovic took over as CEO of the group on 1 May 2024.
Members of the executive committee are formally appointed by the Board of Directors:[35]
Miljan Gutovic, Chief Executive Officer
Steffen Kindler, Chief Financial Officer
Jamie Gentoso, Member (Solution & Products Business Unit)[36]
Toufic Tabbara, Member (North America)
Martin Kriegner, Member (Asia)
Oliver Osswald, Member (Latin America)
Nollaig Forrest, Member (Chief Sustainability Officer)
Mathias Gärtner, Member (Head Legal and Compliance)
Feliciano González Muñoz, Member (Head of Group Human Resources)
CRH plc is an international group of diversified building materials businesses whose headquarters is in Dublin, Ireland. It manufactures and supplies a wide range of products for the construction industry. The group was formed through a 1970 merger of two leading Irish public companies, Cement Limited and Roadstone Limited (1949). CRH's primary listing is on the New York Stock Exchange since 2023, prior to which it was on the London Stock Exchange and on Euronext Dublin.
The Rinker Group was an Australian-headquartered multinational building products company. Before its acquisition by Cemex, it was listed on both the Australian Securities Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange.
Holcim is a Swiss-based global building materials and aggregates flagship division of the Holcim Group. The original company was merged on 10 July 2015 with Lafarge to form LafargeHolcim as the new company and renamed to Holcim Group in 2021. The Holcim brand remained active within the group when the merger was completed.
ACC Limited is an Indian cement producer, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of Ambuja Cements and a part of the Adani Group. On 1 September 2006, the name of The Associated Cement Companies Limited was changed to ACC Limited. The company was established in Mumbai, Maharashtra on 1 August 1936.
Thomas Schmidheiny is a Swiss billionaire businessman, and the former chairman of cement manufacturer Holcim.
Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, together having around a 70% market share of the British cement market. In 1911, the British Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd was formed by the addition of a further 35 companies, creating a company with an initial 80% of the British cement market.
Tarmac Group Limited was a British building materials company headquartered in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom. It produced road surfacing and heavy building materials including aggregates, concrete, cement and lime, as well as operating as a road construction and maintenance subcontractor. The company was formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Aggregate Industries, a member of the Holcim Group, is a company based in the United Kingdom with headquarters at Bardon Hill, Coalville, Leicestershire. Aggregate Industries manufactures and supplies a range of heavy building materials, primarily aggregates such as stone, asphalt and concrete to the construction industry and other business sectors. Aggregate Industries also manufactures and imports cement, and provides a range of aggregate-associated goods and services, these include the manufacture of masonry and reconstructed stone items for construction industry and domestic applications, the manufacture of pre-cast concrete items, the supply of ready-mixed concrete, design and project management consulting, and resurfacing contracting services.
Bamburi Cement Limited is an industrial company in Kenya specialising in cement and concrete. The company has operations in Bamburi suburb of Mombasa, it is headquartered in Nairobi and its stock is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Al Mada, formerly the Société Nationale d'Investissement is a large private Moroccan holding company mainly owned by the Moroccan royal family. Headquartered in Casablanca, the company was established in 1966. Al Mada operates in different fields such as banking, telecommunications, renewable energy businesses and food industry among others.
Hima Cement Limited (HCL) is a cement manufacturer in Uganda. It is a subsidiary of the Sarrai Group, a diversified manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Uganda with subsidiaries in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi.
Ambuja Cements Limited, formerly known as Gujarat Ambuja Cement Limited (GACL), is a major Indian cement producing company. The Group markets cement and clinker for both domestic and export markets.
Tarmac is a British building materials company headquartered in Solihull, England. The company was formed as Lafarge Tarmac in March 2013, by the merger of Anglo American's Tarmac UK and Lafarge's operations in the United Kingdom. In July 2014, Anglo American agreed to sell its stake to Lafarge, to assist Lafarge in its merger with Holcim and allay competition concerns.
Bruno Lafont is a French businessman. He served as the chief executive officer of Lafarge from 2006 to 2015, when it merged with Holcim to become LafargeHolcim. He served as the co-chairman of LafargeHolcim from 2015 to April 2017.
Lafarge is a French industrial company specialising in cement, construction aggregates, and concrete. It is the world's largest cement manufacturer. It was founded in 1833 by Joseph-Auguste Pavin de Lafarge and is a part of the Holcim Group.
Eric Olsen is an American-French business executive. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of LafargeHolcim, a construction public corporation, until 2017.
Karen Louise Scrivener is a material chemist known for her pioneering works in cementitious materials. She is the head of Laboratory of Construction Materials at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and served as the editor-in-chief of the Cement and Concrete Research journal for 15 years.
Lafarge Africa Plc is a building solutions company headquartered in Lagos and quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It is majorly controlled by the Holcim Group. Previously trading under the name of Lafarge Wapco Plc, the merger of Lafarge and Holcim and resulting consolidation of Lafarge's assets in Nigeria and South Africa resulted in the name change to Lafarge Africa.
The Lafarge scandal refers to the court case against Lafarge, a French cement company, for making payments to the armed terrorist groups Islamic State of Iraq and Levant and al-Nusra Front between 2013–2014. The scandal was first revealed by French journalist Dorothée Myriam Kellou and was then followed by investigations by the French government. Similar investigations into the company were held by the American government, which found it guilty of complicity in crimes against humanity and ordered it to pay $777.8 million over the issue.
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SFr 26.8 billion (2021) [1] 
