Our History

New Milton was where we started and where our head office and main base is still situated today, employing over 160 local people. Our operations now include three quarries, four sites/depots, one recycling centre, two builder’s merchants and four concrete plants.

We are proud of the vital materials we produce and supply, to support in building and maintaining our much-needed houses and roads.

Our Story

Established by Herbert H Drew in the 1940s, we’ve a great story to tell, and like the best stories, we’ve a beginning, middle, but no end. Our story is on-going, and all the more dynamic for it!

1940s

The Drew family were local builders in the New Milton area from 1908 and played a huge part in building the town, with Herbert Road a nice current day reminder.

The site at Caird Avenue in New Milton was purchased in the 1940’s as a gravel extraction site for much needed aggregates, and a new and separate business to the Drew Building company was established: The New Milton Sand and Ballast Company (as we were known as then).

The land Tesco now resides on, and our own head office were once the main gravel extraction for the area for local builders. Our head office was built in 1953.

The Caird Avenue site is now our largest, and the main operational base for production. The site is no longer a quarry. It produces our largest stock of sands and gravels, houses a busy BSI concrete plant, builder’s merchant, and is home to most of the fleet.

1960s

Gravel reserves were coming to an end at Caird Avenue which led to the purchase of the Pennington site in 1964. After extraction ended here, around 1986, this site then became the base for our waste services and recycling centre.

The recycling centre at Pennington now operates the following processes: Waste sorting, Inert screening, Concrete crushing, Green waste shredding, Wood shredding, Picking station and Baling.

1990s

1995 saw geographic expansion with the purchase of Elliott Road, in Bournemouth. Now one of our busiest sites providing a large range of materials, tipping facilities and home to our renowned concrete collections plant.

In 1996 we created a bagging facility (then named Maxi aggregates) based at the Caird Avenue site in New Milton and still in operation today.

In 1997 we acquired SMS Skips based in Holbury. Operations have continued from this site but now we have over 6 trucks and 2 ROROs supporting trade and consumers with skip hire across the South. Our skip business is one of our busiest departments. We provided over 4000 skips to the local community in 2021.

In order to support the local businesses, two smaller extraction areas came and went in the 90s. One at Sway and another in Avon Tyrell.

2000s

Reserves

To support our growth into Dorset, in 2007 Hurn Court Farm opposite Bournemouth Airport came into operation as a mineral extraction site. Still active today with a large depot providing materials and a McCrory 2m3 concrete plant based in the grounds.

Later in 2007 we started another quarry based in Wareham. This is a joint venture with William Bond a local landowner. This quarry is referred to as Masters, the company is called Holme Sand and Ballast. It is a large quarry still producing today, a very particular fine sand used in many of our sporting and horticultural products.

As the smaller extraction site in Sway came to an end, 2009 saw a new extraction site start at Downton Manor Farm in Milford to support the New Milton and surrounding areas. Downton houses our new Jubilee Walk open to the local community in April 2022, with seven new freshwater lakes to enjoy created as part of our restoration.

Transport

In 2008 we acquired a local delivery company called Steve Perrins and in 2019 took over the Gary Parsons Haulage fleet. This then gave us an internal transport capability.

We now have 50 vehicles supporting all deliveries across the business from skip hire to our builder’s merchant deliveries.

Diversification

William Hibbs (Bill to the community) first set up his business in 1947 within the NMSB yard at Caird Avenue. They made rockface concrete blocks by hand, sold a few slabs, operated a very small concrete plant, and used contract haulage for small loads. Steve Lidbury, a worker in W.G Hibbs, then bought the business in 1979. Steve along with his sister Jo Kitcher grew W.G Hibbs over the next 30 years into a small local builders’ hub.

In 2009 NMSB acquired W.G Hibbs and have expanded its product range into a main builder’s merchants. In 2022 we started a major renovation of the builder’s merchant with a new yard, warehouse, and larger store in current development.

2011 saw the acquisition of the highly acclaimed Roffey Brothers (originally established in 1919 by John Charles Roffey). Operating out of a site in Throop, producing various specialised soils and composts as well as grass seed, fertiliser and other growing media to the horticultural and sporting industries. Operations now reside at our Downton Quarry with expansion soon to be moved to a larger, dedicated location in West Grimstead near Salisbury.

2011 also saw the start-up of a dedicated concrete plant in Corfe Mullen, near Wimborne to support our growing concrete operations.

2022

At the start of 2022 we opened our second builder’s merchants in Wallisdown. Featuring undercover timber storage and a drive through collection facility, the branch offers a diverse range of products for both trade and consumer and boasts a large warehouse allowing us to hold plenty of stock on site.