News

The Dutch owners of the Dulux paint brand posted their first annual loss in eight years following a €1.2bn writedown on British paint group ICI, acquired last year.

Kbb London and kbbreview EXPO, the two kitchen and bathroom exhibitions planned for May have been cancelled.

Electrical distributors Foster Electrical Supplies have been bought by three members of the senior management team, following the collapse of former parent group BDC.

A secretary at plumbers merchant chain Plumb Center was awarded £9,000 in damages after she was subjected to systematic and continuous' sexist abuse for being the only female employee at the branch.

Anglo American, parent company of Tarmac, will try to save $2bn by cutting 19,000 jobs and scrapping a dividend.

The Government has been urged to kick-start the economy by investing £6.3bn into a scheme aimed at building more than 100,000 affordable homes over the next two years.

Leeds based building chemicals people Everbuild Building Products have acquired the FEB and AQUASEAL brand names from BASF Construction Chemicals.

The Builders Merchants Federation has reported merchants are being hit "extremely hard" by recession according to their latest figures.

Travis Perkins group operating profits fell 15.1% to £271.5m from last year's £319.9m despite cuts to staff numbers and reducing expansion targets.

Plumbing and heating merchant group BSS Group has seen revenue holding up well for the first 18 weeks of the second half of the financial year, according to an interim management statement.