{"id":524392,"date":"2025-07-07T12:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=524392"},"modified":"2025-07-07T12:18:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T11:18:41","slug":"historic-demo-specialist-acquired-by-materials-firm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/financial\/ma\/historic-demo-specialist-acquired-by-materials-firm-07-07-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic demo specialist acquired by materials firm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Demolition specialist Thompsons of Prudoe has been acquired by construction materials firm Ashcourt Group.<\/p>\n<p>Northumberland-based Thompsons was founded in 1948 as a haulier of agricultural products such as lime, manure and slag, before it expanded operations from the 1960s-1980s, becoming a high-hazard demolition expert.<\/p>\n<p>It was founded by Bill and Madge Thompson and remained in the family, being run by their grandchildren John Thompson and Helen Hillary until earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Companies House documentation shows the pair ceased to be the controlling parties of the company on 1 July 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Ashcourt Group was announced as being the entity of significant control in the company at the same time.<\/p>\n<p>Thompsons employs 280 people and was ranked the sixth-largest demolition contractor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/financial\/cn-specialists-index-2024-top-10-demolition-contractors-10-12-2024\/\">2024 CN Specialists Index<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It turned over \u00a355m in the year to 31 March 2024, down from \u00a382.6m in its prior year. Pre-tax profit stood at just \u00a324,000 in its latest accounts, down from \u00a318m in its prior year.<\/p>\n<p>Company directors said at the time that they were content with the results, which reflected cost pressures due to inflation and the landing of large demolition and dismantling costs in the year to 31 March 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Other activities carried out by the firm include quarrying, waste management and haulage.<\/p>\n<p>Founded in 2012, the \u00a3243m-turnover Ashcourt Group describes itself as a family-run company and supplier of construction materials and waste management solutions.<\/p>\n<p>It posted a pre-tax profit of \u00a314.3m in the year to 31 July 2024, up from \u00a311.9m in its prior accounting period.<\/p>\n<p>Headquartered in Pocklington, East Yorkshire, the group\u2019s subsidiaries include Ashcourt Demolition, which does not publish its own accounts.<\/p>\n<p>Ashcourt Demolition was the ninth largest direct contracting supplier to Homes England in 2022\/23, earning \u00a3454,230. It did not make the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/government\/homes-england-contractor-spend-revealed-3-26-07-2024\/\">top 10 firms in 2023\/24<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ashcourt Demolition acquired Sheffield-based Rhodes Asbestos Services in February last year.<\/p>\n<p>The wider Ashcourt Group employs more than 1,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>Thompsons of Prudoe and the Ashcourt Group have both been approached for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Demolition specialist Thompsons of Prudoe has been acquired by construction materials firm Ashcourt Group. Northumberland-based Thompsons was founded in 1948 as a haulier of agricultural products such as lime, manure and slag, before it expanded operations from the 1960s-1980s, becoming a high-hazard demolition expert. It was founded by Bill and Madge Thompson and remained in &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43915,"featured_media":477892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[552,553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-524392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial","category-ma"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Historic demo specialist acquired by materials firm | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Demolition specialist Thompsons of Prudoe has been acquired by construction materials firm Ashcourt Group. 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