The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is examining responses to a consultation exercise asking people what they think of Jewson’s offer to sell branches in 22 areas to satisfy competition concerns raised by its acquisition of the Build Center chain.
Jewson’s owner Saint-Gobain released a statement on March 30 saying it had completed the Build Center acquisition, though the OFT told TTJ that consultation only ended on Wednesday and it still had to go through the responses before making a final decision. This could be days or weeks, it said.
The OFT originally said Jewson’s purchase of 149 Build Center branches may be expected to result in a substantial lessening of competition in 22 local areas.
This was because there were few remaining general builders merchants in these local areas and the OFT was concerned that builders and other tradesmen might see an increase in prices for building materials as a result.
After Jewson offered to divest 23 stores in February, the OFT said its offer was “clear cut” and “appropriate” to remedy the competition concerns. It therefore accepted the offer in lieu of referring the acquisition to the Competition Commission.
The OFT has made it clear that a prospective purchaser of the 23 Jewson branches must not raise competition concerns itself.
Jewson currently has a chain of 510 general builders merchants in the UK operating under the Jewson and Gibbs and Dandy brands.
