Plumb Center owner to cut up to 800 jobs in shake-up

INDUSTRY: Branches across Tayside and Fife could be affected by scaling back

Jobs across Tayside and Fife could be at risk after Plumb Center owner Wolseley said it is cutting 80 branches in the UK.

The company operates almost 50 Plumb Centre stores in Scotland including 10 outlets sprinkled across Dundee, Angus, Perth and Fife.

The group yesterday announced it was entering into a consultation with staff over a £100 million shake-up of its UK-based operations.

The company closed 21 branches in the year to July 31, and the new cuts are designed to return the business to profitable growth long-term.

The group employs 6,000 people in Britain in a 750-strong branch network.

“The UK heating market has been relatively flat and the competitive landscape has been very challenging for some time,” the firm said as it revealed its annual results.

It continued: “The closure of around 80 branches and one distribution centre is expected to lead to up to 800 job losses, the impact of which we will minimise through redeployment and attrition as far as possible.

“The programme is subject to consultation which will commence shortly and is expected to take 90 days.

“Overall, the transformation will take two to three years and is expected to generate £25m to £30m of annualised cost savings when complete.”

The United Kingdom operations account for 8% of total group profit, and like-for-like trading in the year fell 1.6%.

The company said that while new residential construction had grown in the period, the repair, maintenance and improvement market where it derives much of its trading profit had declined.

Group-wide sales increased by 2.4% on a like-for-like basis to £14.43 billion and pre-tax profits climbed strongly from £508m in 2015 to £727m.

The company’s largest market in the US delivered a 6.3% rise in trading profit for the year at £683m, while the UK equivalent figure showed a 17.8% decline at £74m.

CEO John Martin said the UK job losses were regrettable, but he was confident Wolseley would make further progress in the coming year.

Picture: PA. The Plumb Center branch network in the UK is being cut back.