Builders' merchant Jewson has been sold by its French owner to a Danish group as part of a £740 million deal. A total of 600 UK branches and distribution centres have changed hands as part of the deal which has seen Saint-Gobain offload Saint-Gobain Building Distribution to Copenhagen-based Stark Group.
The UK operation includes the well-known Jewson merchant of building products and timber, alongside Gibbs & Dandy and JP Corry in Northern Ireland, specialist brands Jewson Civil Frazer and Minster and International Timber.
Jewson, which is headquartered in Coventry, was founded in 1836 and has been owned by Paris-based Saint-Gobain since 2000.
Stark Group is a retail and distributor of heavy building materials to the trade and has operations in the Nordic countries, Germany and Austria. The deal is expected to complete in the first quarter of 2023.
This latest buyout follows a similar deal in 2019 when Stark Group acquired Saint-Gobain's German distribution business.
Jewson's managing director Nadine Matthews said: "Saint-Gobain is a great business and under its ownership Jewson has developed its offer for customers a huge amount. We're delighted to be embarking on the next phase of our journey.
"With the Stark Group's support and backing, and with more than 6,200 brilliant colleagues in our Jewson family, we're confident about the tremendous opportunities in the construction market in the years ahead."
Søren Olesen, chief executive of Start Group, added: "We have a strategy that successfully focuses on professional craftsmen and the renovation and maintenance market which this acquisition fits very well into. In 2019, we bought Saint-Gobain's German distribution business, and there are many similarities in this acquisition.
"We will do our utmost to develop, grow and invest behind the company making it the professional craftsmen's preferred choice in the UK. We have acquired a business with whom we can continue our growth journey.
"Despite the current tough macro-economic environment, the fundamental drivers for the renovation and maintenance market in the UK with its large need for energy renovation in the coming decades are attractive.
"We are on a strong growth trajectory, at the heart of which is being a good corporate citizen, we value all of our existing employees and are proud of our contributions to bringing down emissions."
