James Hardie Industries plc history, profile and corporate video
James Hardie Industries plc, formerly James Hardie Industries SE, is a manufacturer of fiber cement products and systems for internal and external building construction applications in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. Its fiber cement products are used in a number of markets, including new residential construction (single and multi-family housing), manufactured housing (mobile and pre-fabricated homes), repair and remodeling and a variety of commercial and industrial applications (stores, warehouses, offices, hotels, motels, schools, libraries, museums, dormitories, hospitals, detention facilities, religious buildings and gymnasiums). It manufactures numerous types of fiber cement products with a range of patterned profiles and surface finishes for a range of applications, including external siding and soffit lining. In April 2012, it acquired the assets of a United States business engaged in the pultrision of fiberglass profiles.”
“James Hardie Industries History
James Hardie immigrated to Australia in 1888 from Linlithgow, Scotland, and created a business importing oils and animal hides. Andrew Reid, also from Linlithgow, came to join Hardie in Melbourne, and became a full partner in 1895. When Hardie retired in 1911, he sold his half of the business to Reid.
James Hardie Industries Ltd first listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1951. For much of the twentieth century, James Hardie was the dominant manufacturer in Australia ofasbestos cement sheet and other related building products which used asbestos as a reinforcing material.
James Hardie was one of a number of companies involved in the mining of asbestos, and by the middle of the twentieth century had become the largest manufacturer and distributor of building products, insulation, pipes and brake linings containing it. In Australia, it ran asbestos plants in New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia. Working with the products containing asbestos – including the building material known as “Fibro” – caused people to develop various pleural abnormalities such as asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma.
In December 2001, the company shareholders unanimously voted to restructure and relocate the company in the Netherlands as a parent company. This was part of a strategy to separate the company from the stigma of its asbestos liabilities.
On 19 February 2010, James Hardie moved its corporate domicile from The Netherlands to Ireland, in a transaction designed to transform James Hardie Industries NV into an Irish Societas Europea company, and James Hardie Industries NV became James Hardie Industries SE. The final stage of the move was completed on 17 June 2010.”
*Information from Forbes.com and Wikipedia.org
**Video published on YouTube by “James Hardie“