Wickes sold

Travis Perkins, the UK builders’ merchants company, has bought the British DIY store chain Wickes for £ 950 mio (€ 1.38 bn) from Duke Street Capital, the private equity group that controls Focus Wickes. This move will enable the building materials group, which is worth £ 1.8 bn (€ 2.63 bn), to penetrate the DIY market, while adding to its existing portfolio of 740 building materials depots. The 172 Wickes stores selling core DIY building materials generated sales of £ 911 mio (€ 1.33 bn) in the year to the end of October 2004. Edmund Truell, Duke Street’s chairman, said it had “no immediate intention” of selling Focus, which has 256 stores across the UK geared to the softer end of the DIY market.