Star role for Aggregate Industries on primetime BBC show

Aggregate Industries recently welcomed the BBC’s popular evening television programme, The One Show, to go behind the scenes at its Glensanda facility in Scotland, Europe’s largest granite quarry.

Attracting an average of four million viewers, The One Show is one of Britain’s most popular television programmes. Science TV presenter, Marty Jopson, visited the super quarry to provide an insight into day-to-day operations which sees in excess of nine million t of granite produced annually and has over 180 people working on site.

The highlight of the filming was the rock blast, which can provide access to over 500 000 t of rock at the push of a button. The rock is then crushed and exported by self-loading ships that have a capacity of up to 96 000 t. The production team also took time to highlight the importance of the quarry to the Scottish economy, with Glensanda being one of the UK’s top 15 tonnage ports, and still possessing 760 million t of rock yet to be quarried. The high quality granite from Glensanda has been shipped as far as Tampa in the USA and is regularly delivered to infrastructure and construction projects in the UK and Eastern Europe.

Based in the Highlands, the remote quarry on the coastline of Argyll has helped cement Aggregate Industries’ place as a valuable exporting business in Scotland, accounting for almost 100% of aggregate exported from Britain. Glensanda has also recently seen a £30 million investment in new crushing machinery and the development of a new 220 m delivery system, which has secured operations for another 25 years.

CEO of Aggregate Industries, Pat Ward, said: “Welcoming The One Show to Glensanda was a great opportunity to showcase the professionalism of our operation and the enthusiasm of the colleagues that work there. It’s a unique place with a unique product and it continues to prove how important it is to construction and infrastructure projects across the UK and Europe. Whether it’s off-shore wind farms, oil pipelines or a new airport, Glensanda granite is in constant demand. Having the BBC visit our site gave us a chance to share our operation with 4 million people.”

”The One Show is the latest in a list of programmes that the quarry has been featured on, with the BBC’s Coast series also a previous visitor. In terms of Glensanda’s size, capacity and contribution to the Scottish economy, which is around £100 million, it’s no surprise we continue to welcome those interested in this unique and important operation.”

Adapted from press release by Joe Green

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/europe-cis/25022015/star-aggregate-industries-primetime-bbc-show-404/