Cimsa, a building materials subsidiary of Turkish conglomerate Sabanci Holdings, completed the acquisition of 94.7% of Mannok at the beginning of October 2024.
Mannok – formerly Quinn Building Products until a 2020 rebrand – has now expanded its bagged cement range with the introduction of Mannok Ultra White Cement, the first product manufactured by Çimsa and sold under the Mannok brand.
It is produced at Çimsa’s Mersin cement factory in Turkey and being marketed as a premium product with exceptional whiteness, smooth uniform finish and high strength.
Mannok chief executive Dara O’Reilly said: “We are delighted to add Mannok Ultra White Cement to our extensive range of premium building products. It exemplifies the benefits of our linkage to Çimsa and marks the beginning of an exciting time for Mannok. It is exciting to see this integration between Çimsa and Mannok in terms of products, and there is no doubt that it will be advantageous for both companies, with this being the first of several Çimsa products we aim to add to the Mannok range.”
Since Brexit, cement imports have increased from around a fifth of the UK market to a third.
According to industry statistics, 20 years ago, in 2003, 10% of cement sales in Great Britain were imports. Since 2014 the statistics have been collected on a UK basis. In 2019, when the UK was still in the European Union, imports accounted for nearly 22% of UK domestic cement sales.
In 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available, that figure was more than 32%, with 3.6 million tonnes of foreign cement entering through UK ports
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