Irvine Whitlock up for sale as part of Hanson breakup

Brickwork contractor Irvine Whitlock is being put up for sale as part of the break-up of the Hanson's building products operation.

The firm's owner, HeldelbergCement, announced last month that it would sell £1.7bn of assets to help pay off bank loans. It bought Hanson in 2007 for almost £8bn, but the move saddled it with debts of £5bn, while the profitability of the business has plummeted.

The disposals form part of HeidelbergCement's refinancing plan, which involves more than 50 international lenders. It now has a new syndicated loan agreement totalling £7.3bn running until December 2011.

It had been expected to look to sell Hanson as a whole, but has decided to split it into separate businesses to make the sales more palatable for potential buyers.

The businesses joining Irvine Whitlock include the offsite construction firm Structherm, block paving manufacturer Formpave, block manufacturer Thermalite and Hanson's brick business.

The only parts to be kept will be packed products such as aggregate and cement, along with the aggregate blocks business. These will be integrated into the aggregates and asphalt, cement and ready mix concrete divisions.

A Hanson spokesman said: "The UK division as a whole is not up for sale. We're focusing on cement, aggregates and concrete and other downstream materials."

"HeidelbergCement has made it clear that the divestments are a long process and will take time. Right now we have a transition group headed by David Szymanski [managing director of Hanson Building Products] overseeing the sale of the brick business."

Irvine Whitlock is one of the UK's largest bricklaying firms. In its last set of accounts, filed for 2007, it turned over £60m and made a pre-tax profit of £6m. The firm was founded by Geoff Irvine and Ron Whitlock in 1963 and has worked on schemes such as Emirates Stadium and St Pancras International.