DAY AGGREGATES – THE HISTORY
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Now London’s largest aggregate recycling company, Day Group started life as Day & Sons delivering coal to London’s power stations, businesses and homes during the Second World War, and was incorporated in 1947.
By the 1950s the company had outgrown its Hanworth site and moved to a British Rail Goods Yard in Brentford, where its HQ is now situated.
In 1974 the firm started transporting limestone by rail into London, for the first time on a regular basis, directly from Foster Yeoman’s Torr Works quarry in Somerset.
This move, along with the demise of coal for power stations, businesses and domestic use, helped to shape the future of Day Group.
More railheads and wharves were acquired throughout South London, Surrey, Sussex and Kent in the years that followed.
In the 1960s Day Contracting was set up to provide services to the construction, demolition and water treatment industries throughout the UK.
In 1997, together with partners from within the ready-mixed concrete industry, the company established London Concrete, which is now owned by Holcim. It is now one of the major suppliers of concrete in the London area.
With plants in several of Day Aggregates’ depots and with close management and sales ties, London Concrete remains an important customer and close partner.
In 2005, Day Group bought CJ Burgess, Rother Cartage (South East), and DJ Christmas. All were Sussex-based, family-run businesses, which helped fulfil the group’s ambitions for an increased presence in the bagging of materials, in bulk haulage and in supplying the builders’ merchant trade.
Last year saw the group’s LGV fleet expand further with the purchase of Lavers Transport, based near Sevenoaks in Kent.
Today the company handles more than three million tonnes of construction materials every year.