the boc group plc   - BOC INVESTOR RELATIONS  
          Annual review and summary financial statements 2004   - ANNUAL REPORT 2004  
  HIGHLIGHTS   CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT   CHIEF EXECUTIVE'S REVIEW   IMPLEMENTING OUR STRATEGY AROUND THE WORLD   OPERATING REVIEW   CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY   OUR KEY PEOPLE   RESULTS  
                                 


 
SEEING CLEARLY...
where improvements can be made
 
HYDROGEN
A fuel of the future that delivers environmental benefits today
 
INTELLIGENT DELIVERY
How Marks & Spencer and Gist brought RFID to the retail world
 
MOVING TO WORLD-SCALE
Developments in Asia continue to change the economic map of the world
 
THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF SUCCESS
Investing in the growth businesses of the future
 

The face of BOC has changed substantially over the past six years. We have taken opportunities to develop our business where growth and profit expectations are good. At the same time we have tackled underperforming units and those likely to deliver lower growth.

We started the process of local consolidation when we sold our Benelux and German industrial gases operations in 1998. Since then we have bought and assimilated operations that add profitable business in key markets around the world. These acquisitions have been across all our business areas. We have bought plants in Asia and Latin America that supply hydrogen and air gases to important customers. We have bought specialist technology and vacuum pump capability to expand BOC Edwards' capability. And we have acquired local operations from our competitors in Europe, north America and Asia to improve the range of products and services we can give our customers. All these are in our traditional business areas; when we acquired EMC, a water services company in the US, we added a completely new service to offer our industrial customer base.

Where it makes commercial sense we have combined with others.
By forming Linde BOC Process Plants we gained access to improved technology while reducing our costs. In Japan we merged OSK with Air Liquide's industrial and medical gases business to form Japan Air Gases. This has produced a stronger competitor with a lower cost base.

In South Africa we have grown our Afrox hospitals business, largely by acquisition. Today it is one of the leading private hospital groups in the country and we are in the process of selling the business to black economic empowerment investors. At the same time, our packaged gas business in the US did not deliver the performance we required and we sold it this year.