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Ferguson plc

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Ferguson plc
Company typePublic limited company
ISINJE00BJVNSS43
IndustryBuilding materials
HeadquartersNewport News, Virginia (corporate and operational headquarters)[1]
Key people
Geoff Drabble (Chairman)[2]
Kevin Murphy (CEO)[3]
RevenueIncreaseUS$22.8 billion (2021)[4]
IncreaseUS$2.0 billion (2021)[4]
IncreaseUS$1.5 billion (2021)[4]
Number of employees
31,000 (2022)[5]
Subsidiaries
Websitewww.fergusonplc.com

Ferguson plc (formerly Wolseley plc) is an American-British multinational plumbing and heating products distributor with its head office in Newport News, Virginia (corporate and operational headquarters).[1]

Its brands include Ferguson Enterprises (in the United States).[6]

Wolseley plc changed its name to Ferguson plc in March 2017, to reflect the primacy of its operations in the United States. Ferguson plc is listed primarily on the New York Stock Exchange and secondarily on the London Stock Exchange.[7] The company is registered in Jersey. The company continued to trade as Wolseley in the United Kingdom and Canada,[8] until 2021 when Wolseley UK was sold to a private equity firm.[9]

History

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Wolseley

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The Wolseley business began in 1887 making sheep shearing machinery. Herbert Austin, who had worked on Wolseley's shearing machinery development in Melbourne, Australia from 1887, when he was aged just 20, was appointed its manager and received a share of its equity.[10]

Seeking other suitable products, Austin designed his first car in 1896, and for the next four years, continued to develop and improve his designs. Though the board did allow Austin to purchase some machinery to build cars, they decided around 1900, it was unlikely to be a profitable industry. In 1901, Wolseley's embryo car business was acquired by Vickers, Sons and Maxim.[10]

The postwar rise of synthetic textiles sharply reduced the demand for wool and the necessary machinery, and in 1960, Wolseley diversified activities, by buying Nu Way Heating. Nu Way Burners was founded in 1932 in Vines Lane, Droitwich Spa, Oil Burner Components was founded by Nu Way in 1959, as a national spares organisation. Out of that grew O.B.C. Limited, and then Wolseley Centers Limited, the major distributor of plumbing and central heating equipment.[11]

In 1965, Wolseley purchased Granville Controls and Yorkshire Heating Supplies.[11]

Ferguson

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Wolseley continued to expand buying both manufacturing and distribution businesses. In 1982, it entered the market in the United States by acquiring Ferguson Enterprises, a distributor of plumbing supplies, with around fifty branches on the East Coast of the United States.[11] In 1984, some of the manufacturing businesses were sold off, and since that time Wolseley has been mainly a distribution business.[11]

There were further acquisitions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe. Wolseley moved into Europe, by buying French plumbing supplies business Brossette in February 1992.[11] Acquisition of many more distribution businesses followed. In April 2000, Wolseley sold most of its remaining manufacturing businesses to Cinven for £215 million.[11]

Wolseley issued a profit warning in July 2008, after the credit crunch, and announced 6,000 job losses.[12] It sold Build Center and Brossete to Saint-Gobain in July 2011,[13][14] and ISB (Importation et Solution Bois) Group in April 2015.[15] Bois & Matériaux went to OpenGate Capital in November 2015.[16]

Following a 2016 restructuring of the UK business (based in Warwick in Warwickshire), most of the trading brands were renamed, and brought under the single brand of Wolseley. In Scotland, it was a supplier of plumbing, heating and bathroom products, branded William Wilson.[17][18] In January 2021, Wolseley UK was acquired by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, for £308 million.[9]

Ferguson plc

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Wolseley announced it would rebrand as Ferguson effective 31 July 2017, because almost all of its business was now in the United States, in the name of Ferguson Enterprises. It continued to use the name Wolseley in the United Kingdom and Canada, for its brand recognition.[19] The stock listing switched to new holding company Ferguson plc on 1 August 2017.[19] In January 2021, Wolseley UK's sale to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice completed Ferguson plc's shift to north America.[9]

The company moved its primary listing to the US and consequently ceased to be a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index on 12 May 2022.[20]

In December 2023, the company confirmed that the board of directors was "evaluating the best manner and timing" of officially relocating the headquarters of Ferguson plc from the UK to the US, "which would fully align the Company’s headquarters and governance with its operations and leadership."[21]

Operations

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Ferguson is organised geographically as follows:[22]

  • United States (trading as Ferguson Enterprises) including Puerto Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean
  • Canada (trading as Wolseley Canada) and central Europe. In Canada, it is organised into the following businesses: Plumbing, Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVAC/R), Waterworks and Industrial (Pipe, Valves and Fittings).[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Ferguson - Contact Us".
  2. ^ "Ferguson appoints former Ashtead boss Geoff Drabble as chairman". Reuters. 22 May 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  3. ^ "Kevin Murphy promoted to Ferguson plc group CEO". Supply House Times. 12 September 2019. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b c "Annual Report 2021" (PDF). Ferguson plc. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  5. ^ "Corporate profile". Ferguson plc. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  6. ^ "Our businesses". Ferguson plc. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  7. ^ Josh Mitchell and Ben Dummett of The Wall Street Journal (5 April 2023). "Growing CEO pay gap gives New York an extra edge over London". Fox Business. Retrieved 8 April 2023. Thanks largely to big stock awards, CEOs of U.S.-listed companies tend to make several times more than those in the U.K.
  8. ^ "Wolseley to rebrand as Ferguson, exit Nordic region". FT. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  9. ^ a b c "New owners for Wolseley UK". The Construction Index. 4 January 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  10. ^ a b Roy Church, 'Austin, Herbert, Baron Austin (1866–1941)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
  11. ^ a b c d e f "Company history". Wolseley plc. Archived from the original on 16 December 2009. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  12. ^ "contractjournal.com". Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  13. ^ "Wolseley agrees to sell Build Center to Saint Gobain". BBC News. 25 July 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  14. ^ "Wolseley agrees to sell Brossette to Saint Gobain". Batirama. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  15. ^ "ISB Group separates from Wolseley; becomes 100% French". Fordaq. 9 April 2015.
  16. ^ "OpenGate Capital Enters into Exclusivity with Wolseley plc for the Acquisition of Bois & Matériaux". Business Wire. 11 November 2015.
  17. ^ "Wolseley cuts 800 more jobs as profits dip". The Guardian. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  18. ^ "Plumb and Parts Center now Wolseley". Gas Engineer. 3 January 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  19. ^ a b "Wolseley to rebrand as Ferguson as it departs from Scandinavia". The Daily Telegraph. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
  20. ^ "Plumbing outfit set to follows BHP's FTSE 100 exit in May this year". Shares Magazine. 12 March 2022. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  21. ^ "Ferguson Reports First Quarter Results". 5 December 2023. Retrieved 5 December 2023.
  22. ^ a b "Ferguson taps into lucrative US construction market". The Times. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
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