BPB Ltd (formerly BPB plc) (British Plaster Board) was a British building materials business. It was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index[1] until 2005, when company was purchased by Saint-Gobain of France.
History
Inter-war period
The development of plasterboard (a sandwich of gypsum plaster between two sheets of paper) dates back to the late nineteenth century in the US. The first patent was granted in 1894 but it was not until an American, Frank Culver, persuaded his new employer, Thomas McGhie and Sons, to buy a plasterboard plant from the US that this new product was introduced to Britain. A site was acquired at Wallasey Cheshire and building started in 1916. However, McGhie's shareholders could not supply sufficient funding and in 1917 the plasterboard assets were sold to a new company, British Plaster Board Limited.[2]