CU Phosco - Company History

The company was established in 1923. Its original name was Concrete Utilities Ltd. The founder was Charles Marques M.B.E., an Australian from Adelaide. He had enlisted in the Australian Expeditionary Force to fight in the First World War with his father and was sent to Gallipoli and France. After the war neither of them wanted to return to Australia and they both settled in England.

In the thirties Charles Marques invented a spun concrete process, which was ideally suited to concrete column production, and very soon the company’s total production was transferred to concrete columns. The first concrete columns in the UK were supplied to Liverpool in 1931 and columns of this type are still surviving today.

Phosco was started in the 1950’s producing a wide range of outdoor lighting lanterns and floodlights.

During the 1960’s the company started production of steel High Mast lighting equipment, an area where it is still a world leader with exports to most countries in the world. The production of High Masts meant that a contract section to erect and maintain the masts was formed, as the erection of such large structures is outside the capability of most road lighting contractors. Our contract division has erected and maintained High Masts on roads, airports, docks and stadiums throughout the world.

In 1985 we started production of tapered tubular steel columns using an automatic production facility now installed at our Coleford factory.

We established a joint venture in China in the 1990’s which is called CU Beijing. It is based near Beijing and has been profitable since its start. CU Beijing is involved in the production of High Masts and other columns for the Chinese market.

In 1987 we changed our name to CU Lighting Ltd, as we no longer manufactured concrete columns and Concrete Utilities no longer reflected our production. CU Ware PLC is the parent company.

The company is family owned and the major shareholders are Philip, William and Nicholas Marques. William Marques is the present Chairman. Nicholas Marques is the Managing Director.