Wolseley had a stab at selling its French business several years ago. The more troublesome half was shed, but it was left with the rest. With hindsight, a clean break would have been better.
The plumbers’ and builders’ merchant has been selling non-core businesses in Austria and Luxembourg. Remaining operations in France, the Netherlands and Switzerland account for only £6 million of total trading profits of £235 million from continuing businesses in the first quarter of the financial year. Still, they continue to take the shine off the progress made in the United States, the biggest part of the group.
Standing somewhere between those rising sales and gained market share in the US and the declining continental operations is the UK. The central heating sector