The development ensures that the business has more than 40,000 boilers and 800,000 spare parts in stock around the country to support the industry through the peak winter period, which may be tougher than usual this season should there be impacts caused by global supply chain challenges.

Wolseley’s strategic stock move is designed to support the plumbing industry with increased availability of parts and complete boilers at what is the busiest and coldest time of the year.

Weather analysts are already predicting a particularly cold spell leading up to and post-New Year, which is likely to see increased demand for servicing and repairs to existing household boilers.

Richard Harvey, commercial director plumbing & heating at Wolseley, commented: “At Wolseley we recognise the demands on the plumbers and heating technicians during the winter rush. As such we’ve taken the decision to make a significant incremental multi- million investment in boiler and parts. This ensures that we have more than 40,000 boilers in stock across our national network.

“We’re reviewing demand from previous years to strategically anticipate where to expect the biggest demands regionally and our focus is providing the industry with options to allow them to service customers as demand inevitably increases.”