Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

 The Northampton-based firm, which bought retailer, Tile Giant for £12m in November, said it had made a 'promising start in 2008,' expanding both its trade and retail divisions.

It said that the additional branches, which include seven Travis Perkins branches, and one Tile Giant outlet are expected to cost around £20m in acquisitions and openings, and return around £24m in their first year of operation.

With these eight brownfield openings and five acquisitions, the group's network now stands at 1,138 branches across its seven brands.

"On a like-for-like basis, the group is growing ahead of market growth rates," said chief executive, Geoff Cooper.

"Our proven operational efficiency enables us to pursue a value accretive expansion policy, both through our brownfield programme and through selective acquisition of good merchanting businesses where there are a number of attractive opportunities for the group."

Shares in the group have seen marginal growth of 11p to 1185p.

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