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The branch of Buildbase in Sudbury, Suffolk is to be sold in order to meet the requirements of the Competition and Markets Authority.
The CMA has accepted the undertakings and clear Huws Gray’s £520m acquisition of Grafton Group’s Traditional Merchanting Business in Great Britain.
In July 2021, Huws Gray agreed to acquire the division from Grafton. The acquired business comprises the Buildbase, Civils & Lintels, PDM Buildbase, The Timber Group, Bathroom Distribution Group, Frontline and NDI brands.
The parties had accepted that the merger would mean a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition in one local area, namely Sudbury in Suffolk, where Buildbase Sudbury and Huws Gray (Ridgeons) Sudbury, are located less than three minutes’ drive from each other.
That issue has now been resolved by the undertakings given to the CMA which require the sale of the Buildbase Sudbury business to an independent purchaser approved by the regulator.
