| Company details | |
| For a description of the terms used in this table, please see the attribute definitions. | |
| Name: | Burdens |
|---|---|
| SIC/ICB: | 5113 |
| Sector: | Wholesale, Commission, Not Motors |
| Type: | Private |
| EO %: | 47 |
| Registration number: | 3593372 |
| Accounts: | Jun-07 |
| Revenue (£m): | 305.5 |
| Employees (FTE): | 1101 |
| Website: | www.burdens.co.uk |
| Status: | Pending |
| Ownership Attributes | |
| Employees - individually %: | 0 |
|---|---|
| Employees - through a trust %: | 0 |
| Employees - total %: | 47 |
| Directors %: | 0 |
| External shareholders %: | 0 |
| Total %: | 100 |
| SAYE (Yes/No): | No |
| SIP (Yes/No): | No |
Building materials distributor. Burdens chairman awarded OBE
Burdens chairman Arthur Burden has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday honours for his services to charity.
Following his appointment as a partner with Manchester based chartered accountants Beever and Struthers in 1959 Arthur took an increasingly active interest in the public, voluntary and charity sectors. His first honorary treasurer role was for the Manchester Hostel of the YMCA, he was elected chairman of Manchester Citizens’ Advice Bureau and became chairman of the National Library for the Blind. The accountancy practice was involved at the very beginning of the social housing movement, which addressed the needs in Moss Side and Hulme ultimately leading to the development of Mosscare. Arthur was on the Local Parole Review Committee at Strangeways Prison and his standing within his profession was acknowledged when he became President of the Manchester Society of Chartered Accountants.
However, it was in 1976 when Arthur’s father Wilfred Thomas Burden, who founded Burdens in 1929, established the Burdens Charitable Foundation, donating 40% of his company shares. Arthur became chairman of both the Foundation and company in 1983. In 1987 he was instrumental in introducing one of the earliest employee share schemes to be adopted by any company, laying the foundation for future corporate policy.
Today Burdens is the UK’s leading supplier of utility, civil engineering, specialist construction and environmental products and services and the Charitable Foundation under Arthur’s chairmanship continues to support causes both at home and abroad. A recent example being the La Renaissance project to build and run a school to provide education for children, including some who are visually impaired or totally blind, in Burkina Faso, West Africa, one of the poorest countries in the world.
It is perhaps fitting that this honour has come during the 80th anniversary of the founding of Burdens. When asked for his reaction to the award Arthur responded by saying, “So many people are worthy of the award, but so few are chosen and I have never felt that I was doing anything out of the ordinary.”
WTB Holdings Ltd
Owned by Management and staff (47%), Burdens Foundation (20%), family (33%)