Montreal—The parent company of PVF distributor Ferguson Enterprises is acquiring Westburne's plumbing, industrial and refrigeration-HVAC businesses, which will boost its already-strong U.S. coverage and provide a foothold in Canada.

Britain-based Wolseley PLC will acquire 307 branches for $362 million, said Zeno Santache, vice president of financial control at Westburne, which is owned by French electrical distributor Rexel. Rexel will retain Westburne's electrical distributorships in the U.S. and Canada. The deal was expected to be completed by the end of June.

Wolseley is an international distributor of heating, plumbing products and building materials. The company said it would integrate Westburne's U.S. branches into its plumbing businesses, which in addition to Ferguson Enterprises includes Familian NorthWest of Portland, Ore. Ferguson has more than 500 branches nationwide, while Familian has 114 branches in 12 states.

Wolseley has not announced specific measures, such as layoffs of Westburne employees, but said it expects integration costs of $10.5 million during the next two years.

The Westburne subsidiaries involved include its plumbing and waterworks units (114 U.S. branches, 137 Canadian); refrigeration and HVAC (38 Canadian branches); and industrial supplies (24 Canadian branches).

"While Rexel SA was very impressed with the proven track record and future earnings potential of the non-electrical groups [at Westburne], our expertise and focus will be on electrical products distribution and as such a conscious decision was made to divest the other groups so as to be able to service the electrical client base and improve our ongoing efficiencies in this regard," Santache said.

"Having said this, both Rexel and the Wolseley-Ferguson team will continue to work very closely during the transition period so as to ensure continued efficient service to our clients at the operational level," he said.

Shortly before Wolseley announced the Westburne acquisitions in May, it promoted Ferguson's CEO and president Charles Banks to group chief executive. Claude "Chip" Hornsby, a senior vice president at Ferguson, was named Ferguson's new CEO, and will oversee Wolseley's U.S. plumbing and heating distribution operations.

Banks described Westburne as a "quality business with a good track record," and indicated its U.S. operations would require some "initial restructuring," according to a British news report.

Santache said that Banks was involved in the Westburne negotiations and that he was "very impressed with the caliber of both Banks and the Wolseley-Ferguson team."

Westburne, which ranked 11th in ID's Top 100 Distributors in 2001, with $1.06 billion in electrical and industrial products sales, was acquired by Rexel last September. Ferguson Enterprises was ranked 12th in the 2001 Top 100 with $975 million in industrial products sales.