Wolseley, the world's largest plumbing and heating distributer has made five acquisitions for £33m and expects the purchases to add £45m to its revenue.
On February 29, 2008, Wolseley UK bought Surrey-based passive fire protection distributor PFC Corofil Firestops and its subsidiaries from Geoff Ashling.
PFC operates from a single UK location in Chessington, Surrey and in the year ended March 31, 2007 had revenue of £1.9m.

On March 3, Wolseley Eastern Europe completed its purchase of plumbing and heating distributor Gama Myjava s.r.o (Gama). Gama operates from eight branches in Slovakia and five branches in the Czech Republic and in the year ended 2006, Gama had £16m revenue.

As well as its two new acquisitions in Europe, the Wolseley group made three acquisitions in North America. On December 3, 2007, Wolseley's subsidiary Ferguson acquired the assets of San Francisco-based distributer C.B. Group, Inc. trading as JC Plumbing Supply. On February 1, 2008, it acquired assets of Washington-based door installer Precision Doors & Hardware, LLC. On February 19, 2008 it acquired the assets of Florida-based cabinet distributor Mastercraft Cabinets, Inc.

Chip Hornsby, group chief executive of Wolseley said 'I am pleased to announce these acquisitions. They are excellent businesses that broaden our product and geographic coverage and support our strategy of growing the business through acquisition and organic growth.'

Since August 2007, a total of 15 bolt-on acquisitions in Europe and North America were completed costing £203m. They are expected to add £263m to the group's revenue.

With 79,000 employees around the globe, Wolseley's revenue for the year ended July 31, 2007 was £16.2 billion and trading profit was £877m.