Over the past 12 to 18 months, Lex Russell has been leading Cemex UK through a period of meaningful transformation against a dynamic market backdrop. This phase has been marked by a continued strategic evolution of the business. In early 2025, the company launched Project Cutting Edge, a key initiative focused on enhancing competitiveness and strengthening shareholder value through operational efficiencies and a sharper focus on core businesses. Shortly afterwards, Jaime Muguiro assumed the role of Cemex CEO on 1 April 2025, reinforcing this strategic direction.
The programme delivered approximately US$200m in savings by the end of 2025 and is expected to reach US$400m by 2027. As part of this transformation, Cemex UK – within the broader EMEA region – has implemented a more streamlined organisational structure, consolidating operations and empowering local teams with greater decision-making autonomy, ultimately driving a stronger focus on core activities and performance.
“We are now much more focused on ensuring our initiatives deliver clear business value while maintaining a strong alignment of resources and priorities. For example, we prioritise digital projects that can generate tangible impact in the short term. Within the circular building materials economy, investments must deliver solid returns and create synergies across the business. Today, we have greater autonomy to act, allowing us to make decisions locally that directly support our financial KPIs and strengthen overall performance.”
Russell notes that since Muguiro’s appointment as CEO in April last year, Cemex’s share value has trebled. “It has made a massive difference, and [trading] results have improved,” he says. “A lot of that reflects the confidence investors and shareholders have in Jaime’s leadership and in the company’s ability to execute. There is a strong sense in the market that Cemex is delivering on its strategy, with clear priorities and consistent performance, which is helping to build further momentum.”
A Scottish national from Penicuik near Edinburgh, Russell has a long career in the UK and international building materials industry, starting with hands-on experience in various roles before moving into management. He attributes his success to continuous learning, building relationships, and a supportive company culture at Cemex.
“I’ve seen changes in my job. As the materials managing director for the UK, I looked after aggregates and ready-mix, but I now am also responsible for asphalt, building products and dry silo mortar.”
Synergies
Russell notes that the synergies gained across the UK have been significant as teams work closely together to drive efficiencies across all operations.
Russell says the subdued British building materials market is primarily due to a downturn in housebuilding and commercial construction, which is putting pressure on volumes. He emphasises Cemex UK’s focus is on price discipline, cost reduction, operational efficiency, and customer relationships to navigate these challenges.
A broader mix of macroeconomic factors, including evolving global conditions, as well as higher interest rates and energy costs, has also influenced construction activity in the UK, tempering confidence and demand, Russell notes. At the same time, the pace of infrastructure and housing delivery has been more gradual than anticipated, contributing to a more measured market environment.
Within this context, Cemex UK continues to take a disciplined approach to investment, progressing with targeted projects such as the Dove Holes building products facility near Buxton, Derbyshire, and a new dry silo mortar plant in Swindon, Wiltshire. These developments are designed to enhance operational efficiency and reliability, while strengthening the company’s product offering and supporting its ongoing focus on sustainability and customer service.
Cemex’s UK operations can be traced back to 1826, when a small family business owned by Thomas Walker and his son, George Walker, began producing lime mortar in Rugby, a market town in eastern Warwickshire, in England’s West Midlands. This business was eventually acquired by RMC in the year 2000. RMC’s own history dates back to the 1930s when Kjeld Ammentorp is credited with founding the organisation and establishing the UK’s first Readymix Concrete Plant. RMC were in turn acquired by Cemex in 2005.
Challenges
Like all building material producers, Russell notes that Cemex UK faces challenges in securing planning permissions for quarries and other operating sites, Russell chairs the London-based Mineral Products Association (MPA), the UK trade association for the aggregates, asphalt, cement, concrete, dimension stone, lime, mortar, and industrial sand industries, which is strongly advocating for more efficient planning and permitting as part of a wider championing of the British building materials sector.
“We’re knocking on the government door harder than we’ve ever done, and why shouldn’t we? We are an industry that employs 90,000 people. There has been significant emphasis on supporting the steel-making industry, and we are a significantly bigger employer. It’s about making sure the Government is listening to us.”
Russell says he and the MPA board are keen for the government, local authorities and wider UK society to recognise the building materials industry as ‘critical’ rather than its current ‘essential’ status to secure future supply chains.
“If you want mineral products in the future for construction of your hospitals, schools and roads, local authorities have got to support us with planning permissions. The current process is slow and cumbersome. It’s got worse since COVID. It’s a lack of resources and expertise, not just in local authorities but also in environmental permitting. The process is far slower than in other countries. I think they treat materials accessibility as a bigger priority. It’s also important to consider the local economy jobs tied to obtaining these planning permissions and permits. It also costs a lot of money to put in our applications.
“I’ve sent countless letters to the heads of local authorities, highlighting how slow a permitting application has been. It sometimes helps.
“At small sand and gravel pits with very small approved reserves, it’s a big concern. The reserves you are approved to access are also available for shorter periods. When you’ve got to invest to do this, it gets more and more difficult [to make it pay].
“When we ask the global Cemex Group to invest in the UK, they have to be confident in this market. When HS2 [a high-speed railway under construction in England since 2019, planned to run between Handsacre, near Lichfield in southern Staffordshire and London, with a branch to Birmingham] was in its early stages.
“Cemex invested £20m to open a new quarry, restoration site and install two concrete plants. It’s a government-backed project that, at the time, was the biggest infrastructure project in Europe. Why would you not invest in it? We got the money, we made the investment, and then things started to go slow, slow, slow. It was a struggle to get permits at the beginning, but we did, and then the project slowed right down due to funding issues. It makes it extremely difficult to secure investment in the UK for Global companies when you can’t even have confidence in such a high-profile Government backed construction project.”
Growth
Despite ongoing market and operating challenges, Cemex UK’s Materials MD is optimistic about the future of the sector, anticipating growth in housing, renewable energy infrastructure, and more automated, decarbonised operations, while acknowledging the need for greater certainty around planning permissions and government support.
Cemex UK continues to expand its portfolio of more sustainable construction materials, including lower carbon. Its Vertua® concrete range now representing approximately 70% of total concrete sales. Despite this progress, market uptake remains sensitive to pricing. Russell highlights that while the company has developed robust, sustainable solutions, broader adoption is dependent on increased demand from society and developers. He also notes that current geopolitical conditions are not supporting stronger demand in this area. Nevertheless, there are several projects where these lower carbon products are already being successfully supplied.
Looking at its workforce, Cemex UK is working to attract and retain talent by offering apprenticeships, promoting diversity, and recognising the need to expand the talent pool to meet future industry demands.
“What’s in my head is having specific competence and knowledge in the business to cover key topics. It’s knowing who is the person I’ll turn to when we’re opening a new sand and gravel or hard rock quarry? Who will know what equipment I need to work a quarry face to achieve the best aggregate mix for the crushers and screens? Who understands the quarry’s geology so we can build the right haul roads to maximise production? If I’m buying a new cone crusher, what’s the preferred model? Who will advise me on the best loading shovel for a certain application? Locally, nationally and globally, we need to understand the needs of our aggregate and other material businesses, and I want good people coming through to drive them forward. Our employee retention is very good, and some who have left us have come back very quickly.”
Russell stresses that Cemex UK has a firm focus on employee wellbeing. This includes initiatives on mental health, neurodiversity, and early prostate cancer detection through PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) blood testing for male employees aged 40 and over.
“Our ultimate aim is to get to zero harm. No one comes to work thinking they will get hurt. We look after ourselves and each other. It’s not always about KPIs [key performance indicators] and numbers. It’s about developing the right culture throughout the business. We will never, ever put production before anyone’s health and safety.
“Our health and well-being group works across our UK operations. They have recently focused on the menopause as a topic. It affects us all. Many of our people participated in our support sessions, and we encouraged employees to bring their partners. We’ve also recently been looking at neurodiversity and suicide. Our PSA testing I believe is going to save lives. We started last year at our Rugby cement plant. We tested all the guys at Rugby, and two out of the 100 had high PSA levels. They went away and got medical advice. We also tested 60 guys at Dove Holes, and four had high PSA. One of the things about prostate cancer is that it doesn’t necessarily have any symptoms. One of the guys who works for me wasn’t tested by us, but his wife encouraged him to get tested. He’s 53, the healthiest guy you could meet, but was found to have prostate cancer. He’s since had medical treatment and back at work. By the time you realise you have prostate cancer, it can be too late. Early detection is key.”
Biodiversity
Russell stresses how Cemex UK actively promotes quarry restoration, aiming for ‘biodiversity net gain’ and a ‘nature positive’ approach, leaving restored sites in a better ecological condition than before, which is seen as integral to their operations and beneficial for local communities.
“Quarry restoration is one of the things that I love about what we do. We dig up a field where sheep and cows once were grazing, extract the minerals for roads, houses, and hospitals, and when we’ve finished, we restore the site to a much better condition than it was previously, with ponds, wetlands, flora and fauna, encouraging animals and insects to inhabit. This is what we do; it’s in our DNA. There are 46 rare birds in the UK, but they’re all on our active and restored sites. It’s lovely to see on our active sites when we have teams there that have built relationships with sand martins and other birds or visiting wildlife and look forward to seeing them.”
Russell emphasises the need for continuous performance improvement, while building trust, enjoying work, and finding purpose and satisfaction in one’s career, highlighting the importance of work-life balance and passion for one’s profession.
Digitalisation and AI are being integrated across Cemex UK to enhance operational efficiency through predictive maintenance and streamlined safety procedures (the Take 5 app), and to improve commercial insights by analysing sales data and customer behaviour. Cemex Go, a customer-facing app, facilitates ordering and delivery management. This work aligns well with Cemex’s global Digital Forward programme, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI and data cloud platforms to enhance efficiency, productivity, and sustainability across operations.
“AI is massively helping us on the operations side with predictive maintenance. It will help them grow a lot stronger. On the digitalisation side, we now use iPads and mobile phones, which can, among other things, give you access to the Take 5 app, which encourages you to run through a digital safety checklist before you do a task. On the commercial side, we will increasingly use AI to better understand what our customers want. I see this technology as helping our people do their jobs while giving them more time to think about new ways of doing things better and continuously improving.”
Cemex UK’s new product and process innovation draws on research and development work undertaken at Cemex’s Global Centre for Technology & Innovation in Switzerland. The facility focuses on developing more sustainable, higher-performing, and lower-emission mixes, with forward-looking projects exploring concepts.
Russell has worked in the building materials industry for over 40 years, initially starting in 1984 with Scottish quarrying and concrete business Alexander Russell, holding a variety of operational and technical roles. In 1989, he joined RMC’s technical department and later progressed through the company as a quarry manager, operations manager, business manager and director.
Acquired
In 2005, RMC was acquired by Cemex, and two years later, Russell moved to Australia to lead a team in the post-merger integration of Rinker, which Cemex acquired in 2007. He returned to the UK as vice president before becoming managing director of the Cemex UK Materials business in 2018.
Russell describes his leadership style as being characterised by accessibility, clear and simple communication, a focus on purpose, empowerment, accountability, and high personal and professional standards. Asked about his biggest achievements heading up Cemex UK Materials, he cites significant improvements in its health and safety culture, successfully navigating the COVID-19 pandemic, driving continuous improvement, and fostering a positive company culture. Major challenges over the past eight years have included market downturns, global financial crises, business restructurings, and the difficult process of reducing headcount.
Elaborating on his senior MPA role, Russell says: “There has been a lot going on at the association. It’s not been the easiest couple of years for the national building materials industry, but I’ve been working with a lot of good people at the MPA. They are an amazing team, experts in their field. Chris Leese [MPA executive chair] was VP of Cemex UK Readymix when I was VP of Aggregates, and I’ve been enjoying being back working with him. He’s been a great help to me over the years and has been really driving the messages the MPA has been putting out. This industry has given my family and me a good life, and I want to make sure it is as strong as it can be for future generations. I love everything about what we do. It’s not a chore to get up out of bed in the morning.”
What’s the best piece of career or life advice he’s acted on? “The best piece of career advice I’ve acted on is ‘Always go to work with the mentality of making today’s performance better than yesterday’s and surround yourself with those that you can trust. I’ve never had a bad boss in my time, which has been great. Every one of them has helped me to develop and has inspired me in my career. Now I want to inspire the people working for me in our business.”
Away from work, Russell, who lives in Birmingham, is a passionate and lifelong supporter of Heart of Midlothian FC (Hearts). He and various family members use six season tickets between them to attend home matches at Tynecastle, the club’s stadium in the Gorgie area of Edinburgh. Russell also occasionally attends Hearts’ away matches. My wife and I get the train up to games. The club nearly went into liquidation ten years ago! This year we nearly won the league.”
