Fox Group has appointed former Tarmac national commercial director Richard Kirwin as group commercial director, giving him responsibility for sales, marketing, product development and customer relations across its plant hire, quarrying, aggregates recycling, muck-away and ready-mix concrete operations. Kirwin brings 25 years’ experience at Tarmac, including four years in a UK-wide commercial role covering asphalt, aggregates and concrete supply to major infrastructure schemes. The move follows Blackpool-based Fox Brothers Holdings Group’s acquisition by Stellex Capital Management in September 2024, signalling an aggressive growth and materials innovation agenda in regional civils supply chains.

Researchers in Sweden have characterised how stainless steel corrodes in contact with liquid lead, providing data critical for structural components in lead‑cooled fast reactors proposed as alternatives to pressurised water designs. The work focuses on corrosion mechanisms at the steel–lead interface, including dissolution and oxide layer behaviour, which directly affect cladding integrity, vessel wall thickness allowances and inspection intervals. Findings are expected to inform material selection, allowable temperature windows and safety margins for future Generation IV lead‑cooled reactor projects.

Hillhouse Quarry Group, one of Scotland’s largest privately owned aggregates and asphalt producers, has appointed former NATS chief financial officer Alistair Borthwick as chief executive and promoted long-serving commercial director Mark Munro to managing director. The leadership change follows the planned April retirement of managing director Robert McNaughton, who led the family-run business for 18 years as it expanded from an Ayrshire quarry operator into a national group and entered Scotland’s top 100 private companies. For contractors and materials buyers, the move signals continuity in long-term supply relationships and pricing strategy, with added financial discipline from Borthwick’s infrastructure background.