Burdens: more branches to be sold?

Having already sold 22 branches to Wolseley, civil engineering specialist merchant WT Burden may be considering selling more.

Wolseley UK is taking on 600 staff as well as the 22 branches in a deal worth £30m . It says it plans to run the branches – which will be branded as Burdens – as a completely separate entity within the Wolseley group.

However, there are still questions over what will happen to the remaining depots and staff and also who is responsible for paying the debts to suppliers.

Kevin Hancock, marketing director at WT Burden, told £80m refinancing at the start of the year.

The group has a complicated ownership structure with shares held by family and a charitable trust as well as an employee-ownership scheme.