Wolseley spends another £13m on four more firms

Building materials supply giant Wolseley has been on the acquisition trail again spending £13m on four acquisitions.

In North America it bought Grif-Fab Corporation, a distributor and manufacture of fire protection systems in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. In the year ended 30 November 2006, Grif-Fab had revenue of £14.5 million and gross assets £3.6 million).

The remaining three bolt-on were in Europe.

It acquired the outstanding 60% of Superbyg Kalaallit Nunaat (SKN), which it did not previously own. Builders merchant SKN has stores in five cities in Greenland. In the year ended 30 June 2006, SKN had total revenue of £9.4 million and gross assets of £5.3 million.

It bought Sweden’s Jarn och Tra Orust AB (JTO) from Animonhus AB. In the year ended 31 December 2005, JTO had revenue of £2.9 million and gross assets of £0.6 million.

Finally it picked up builder merchant SA Escaffre & Fils and Eurl Espace Carrelages ('Escaffre') from Escaffre Developpment. In the year ended 31 December 2005, Escaffre had revenue of £6.0 million and gross assets of £2.3 million.

Chip Hornsby, Group Chief Executive of Wolseley said: “Our aim is to continue to grow the business through organic means and from good quality acquisitions. These four deals support that aim.”