By creating sustainable economic value we not only ensure the long-term success for our business, employees and investors, we contribute to the success of our customers and the users of the built environment our products help to create.

We also play a valuable role, benefiting local economies and communities through the creation of wealth and skilled employment.

By doing this we fulfil our responsibilities to our stakeholders, but also generate economic value that can be invested in improving the social and environmental performance of the company, for instance by developing low carbon technologies and products that help customers build more sustainably, efficiently and profitably.

We create economic value in the following ways:

● Through provision of jobs and career opportunities
● Through purchasing local goods and services
● Through paying taxes and levies to government
● Through the new homes, offices and infrastructure created from our products.

Tarmac maintained strong economic performance in 2016 as we continued to develop relationships with our customers, industry partners and communities to deliver long-term sustainable value as part of the CRH group.

The continued implementation of our Commercial Excellence and Operational Excellence Programmes has also helped to drive increased efficiency and customer support.

During the year we have continued to grow our business and achieve focused growth with a number of targeted investments across our UK portfolio. 2016 saw the development of a new rail facility at our cement plant at Aberthaw, South Wales, Investment in rail capacity at Mountsorrel quarry, Leicestershire and the reopening and upgrading of our second of two aerated block factories at Linford, Essex. We have also continued to invest in our most important asset, our people. In the past 12 months we recruited 23 new apprentices and 37 graduates and expanded our learning and development programmes across the organisation.

As Tarmac are now part of CRH PLC, our 2016 financial performance and tax contributions are disclosed in CRH PLC financial reports.