History

The Basil Read journey dates back to 1952 as the brain child of Mr Basil Leonard Read. What started as a humble building block has now become a powerful brand that has created a number of milestones in construction, development, engineering and mining in Southern Africa.

It has charted its course through six tumultuous decades in the construction sector – from economic booms to challenging recessions and the plateaus of recovery in between – to secure its rightful place among the leading global construction companies.

It has been a journey signposted with many more milestones – from its listing on the JSE in 1987; to a landmark empowerment deal in 2005; from a R5 billion turnover in 2008; to being top of the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies Survey in both 2008 and 2009. The next milestone in Basil Read’s journey is set high: to become a R10 billion turnover global construction group by 2013.