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The case is set in mid-December 1998. Don Godson and his senior management colleagues in CRH plc, a leading international building materials company headquartered in Ireland, were faced with a number of major strategic decisions: (1) whether to acquire Ibstock plc, a leading UK brick manufacturer; (2) whether to dispose of Keyline, the Group''s UK builders merchanting subsidiary; and (3) whether to bid for certain assets of Scancem, the Scandinavian cement producer. Of these, the Ibstock decision was the most imminent. Moreover, the likely purchase price of £550 million would be twice as large as any acquisition previously undertaken by the Group. The deal would also have implications for CRH''s carefully crafted strategy of overseas expansion, which involved the purchase of medium-sized firms as part of a coherent and highly successful acquisition formula. The case firstly describes the building materials industry, which manufactures and supplies building materials and products to the construction sector for use in building and contracting. Traditionally, the industry has been fragmented, due to a high product weight to value ratio and the local character of markets. Construction is a mature activity in western economies, although it enjoys cyclical booms in peripheral and emerging markets. CRH''s growth and development is outlined, from a newly-merged, predominantly Irish company in 1970 to a leading international building materials group in 1998. Over this period, CRH consistently delivered superior performance, as evidenced by its compound total annual shareholder return of 22%. Having benefited from Ireland''s construction boom in the 1970s, CRH embarked on a deliberate and major strategy of overseas expansion by acquisition at the end of the decade. However, CRH also expanded in a limited, but highly rewarding way, into new product areas.