When Kean took over from Neal, Boral had small operations in the United Kingdom that it had acquired in the takeover of BMI. Neal had been to assess them in 1982-83. He found two parallel types of operations - Pozzolanic and Lytag, both flyash operations. Flyash is a by-product of coal-burning power stations which is used as an alternative to cement in the manufacture of pre-mixed concrete. BMI also         had flyash operations in Australia and the United States. There was also an ironworks, a single quarry and a cable manufacturing business. The foundry had operated from the same site for 160 years. Boral promptly sold the quarry and later the foundry and the cable manufacturing business and concentrated on improving the management of both Pozzolanic and Lytag. The ironworks were sold at a handsome profit in 1986 and this money was then used to purchase Edenhall Concrete Products. This company was owned by a larger UK company that was anxious to quit the building products industry. Neal comments, 'There were about fifteen concrete products plants ranging from Cumbria in the north, down to London. It wasn't making any money but we recognised that it was the sort of business that Boral understood, in that it was similar to our Australian concrete product operations.' Once Edenhall was bought, Neal sent over a team of Australians to manage and streamline the operations. This proved very successful and the business was operating at a profit within a year. The Boral board had decided by this time that its United Kingdom operations were small, but provided a good base to embark into the European market. When Kean took over in 1987, Boral had no success in trying to buy more businesses in the United Kingdom. It became apparent that British companies could acquire targets at much higher prices because accounting rules allowed them to immediately write off goodwill against shareholders' funds. Boral, in accordance with Australian accounting rules, was required to amortise the goodwill over twenty years. The solution was to move directly into the European market. Kean first made a clay brick acquisition in the Netherlands and put in a Dutch-German management team rather than send out an Australian one. He found a German manager in Boral's brick operations in the United States who wanted to return to Europe. He also had a Dutch accountant in Australia who was keen to work in Europe. Kean recalls, 'These weren't senior managers but very experienced technocrats.' Boral set up an office in Dusseldorf and made some further brick, tile and quarry acquisitions in Germany. Kean comments, 'Many observers asked, "Why Germany?" but Boral had done a lot of research into the European market. At the time everybody was excited about Spain, Barcelona was hosting the 1992 Olympics, the Columbus Festival was coming up - Spain was flavour of the month. Germany, on the other hand, had zero population growth, prescriptive rules and recognised cartels. Businesses were highly regulated and the country's accounting rules were very complex. It came down to a choice between high-risk, high profits in Spain, or a low return for low risk in Germany.' Boral opted for the low-risk option. Kean would like to have thought he had the foresight to know that the Berlin wall would come down in the twelve months following Boral's move into Germany and that the European market was really going to open up, but in actual fact this was a classic case of being in the right place at the right time.         »»