Wolseley plc has agreed to buy the Ireland-based Brooks Group Ltd for £120m.
The deal, expected to be concluded during the third quarter, comes after months of speculation that Brooks’ Finnish parent UPM had put the business up for sale.
Other Irish merchanting groups Heiton and the Grafton Group had also been rumoured to be interested in buying Brooks.
The acquisition, also to include the conditional sale of a number of Brooks’ freehold and leasehold properties for about £35m, represents a major expansion of Wolseley’s Irish interests, which so far extend to the Athlone-based Heatmerchants plumbing and tiles business.
Brooks has 18 branches throughout Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic with an annual turnover last year of €195m.
Its key operational management will remain in place, reporting to Wolseley UK managing director Adrian Barden, while the Brooks name will continue, at least in the short-term.
Mr Barden said: “Our presence in Ireland is being significantly enhanced by the purchase of Brooks. It gives us a much stronger and more balanced offering and provides a platform for future growth.”
The sale heralds a new wood products distribution strategy for UPM in Ireland.
Harald Finne, president of UPM’s wood products division, said: “We aim to concentrate on sales to the merchant chains and major industrial end users instead of being a distributor ourselves in the Irish market.”
UPM, which intends to remain trading with Brooks under the new ownership, will net €100m profit from the sale.
