Tom Roche - the tough hard man of Irish Business

THE RESIGNATION of Tom Roche as an executive director from the board of Cement Roadstone Holdings marks the end of the story of 'how one man built up' Ireland's largest industrial enterprise from nothing. Roche was' a tough man but of course, he had to be to achieve what he did. That he has not lost: any of his ceaseless drive and enterprise is evident from' the many business activities he is now deeply involved in, the most notorious being Bula and, the most unusual being his plan to ,build a private enterprise bridge across the Liffey. By TOM ANDERSON

Tom Roche's career stretches over the period 'of the recent history of Irelands industrial development, and thus had to survive many traumatic changes in the Irish economy. His own business history had its own traumatic occasions, some of which are still talked about with some relish, particularly some of the board room rows in the battle for control of Ireland's cement monopoly which ended on one occasion with a valuable' Waterrford Glass decanter taking flight.

Tom Roche started out with his brother Donal two years after Fianna Fail under De Valera swept into power in that most dramatic of general elecctions in 1932. The two Roche brothers had basically nothing but their hands 'to work with. They leased a tiny little yard out in Inchicore, bought a cheap second hand lorry, and opened for business as sand and gravel merchants and haulage contractors with Tom Roche doing the shovelling and driving and Donal the paper work.

Although De Valera's high tariff protectionist trade policy did encourage many small industrial concerns to start up and so boost the building inndustry, the economic war which followwed shortly afterwards probably did as much harm. With the Second World War following this, the Roche brothers had an extremely difficult time making any headway. It was just a matter of slaving away for a pittance and hoping one day to make' the breakthrough.

With 'the World War coming to an end, TOq1 Roche did not hang around to wait for things to happen. He instead jumped in at the end of 1944 to form the Castle' Sand Co. Ltd. This was set up in the expectation of a post war building boom. Roche had rightly reckoned there would be a rapid inncrease as a result in demand for Castle Sand's products, namely washed and graded gravel.

The big time was still to come. This arrived shortly after Roadstone Ltd. ittself was formed in 1949, incorporating Roche's own company. Roadstone was formed to develop extensive quarries over 120 acres of quarry land at the Hill of Allen in Co. Kildare. This was a massive development for a company as small as Roadstone was then. The new plant which was installed was able to produce 1,000 tons of roadstone daily and a second plant, a further 400 tons of tarmacadam daily.

To finance this development, Tom Roche then decided in 1950 that Roadstone go public. The total amount raised then only came to £241,000 to push the total capital employed in Roadstone as it then was, up to £300,000. During the 'fiftie~ little happened, but in the 'sixties, with the economy taking off, Roadstone went on a takeover spree, which inncluded fairly large companies like Clondalkin Concrete and John A. Wood of Cork.

Roadstone also branched out into England where it set up a subsidiary, Forticrete, in Liverpool, making conncrete blocks. To pay for all this, Tom Roche had to float a continuing series of fairly major rights issues, as retained earnings were not at all sufficient. By the end of the 'sixties, Tom Roche was running one of the largest industrial companies in the country, involved in almost every area of building materials and with a capital employed of £IOm.

One of the things that increasingly irritated Tom Roche was the way he was treated by Ireland's cement monoopoly, the Danish - influenced Cement Ltd. By 1970, Roadstone was the larrgest single consumer of cement in the country, go b bling up the best part of 200,000 tons a year. Despite this, Cement Ltd. refused to give Roche any leeway, keeping him under a very tight 30-day payment schedule and proobably most galling of all, gave no disscount whatsoever for bulk purchases.

Roche was determined to break through Cement's monopoly one way or another. His initial plan was for Roadstone to build its own cement works out en its Belgard site in Clonndalkin. By a strange quirk of fate, Ceement Ltd. went out on strike and stayed out for an incredible six months, during 1970. Although the company was twice the size of Roadstone, Roche could not resist the opportunity to make a takeover bid in the middle of Cement's strike.

With the financial muscle of the giant Danish cement machinery manuufacturer, F.L.Smidth, behind it, Cement Ltd. was easily able to fend off Roaddstone's daring move. It was only when R.M.C., the British ready mix group, entered the scene by making a takeeover bid for Roadstone itself that things started hotting up. With the State insurance company, Irish Life, holding a critical 10% stake in both Cement and Roadstone.; a political compromise was worked out whereby the two companies merged together with no clear winner.

In a sense this was a pyrrhic victory for Tom Roche, for the effect of the merger was to leave Cement Ltd.'s shareholders with around 70% of the voting capital of the new company, Cement Roadstone Holdings, and Roaddstone's shareholders with only 30% Tom Roche's own personal shareholding fell to as low as 21/2%. He then had a very much diluted voice in determinning the destiny of this new combine. Although Roche was eventually appoinnted chief executive of C.H.R., he had to share the managing directorship with his bitter foe,' the Dane, Oaker Lund.

With neither Roche nor Lund a young man - both were well in their sixties: the strain of the two of them having to work together began to tell with major decisions becoming increaasingly difficult to make. The outcome of it all was that both men agreed to resign their joint managing directorrships at the same time in 1974. If Roche got any consolation out of this, it was at least that the two top jobs in C.R.H. went to proteges of his, Jimmy Culliton as chief executive and Jack Hayes as financial controller.

The resignation now of Tom Roche as a part time executive with the group thus really only formalises the new position. He has, however, left Cement Roadstone firmly in Irish hands. Its existence will remain a continual memorial to his lifetime's work. The fact that Tom Roche is now better known for the notorious deal he did with Justin Keating over Bula, which ended up with £9V2m in his pocket, is a pity. If the Dublin Port and Docks Board allows Roche to go ahead with his plan to build a bridge over the mouth of the Liffey from Ringsend to East Wall which will be handed over gratis to a public authority when it's initial cost has been repaid from bridge tolls, then it will be a more fitting way for Roche to end up in the minds of the public.