Ferguson plc (formerly Wolseley plc) is a British-American multinational plumbing and heating products distributor with its head office in

Wokingham Wokingham is a market town in Berkshire, England, west of London, southeast of Reading, north of Camberley and west of Bracknell. History Wokingham means 'Wocca's people's home'. Wocca was apparently a Saxon chieftain who may als ...

, England. Its brands include

Ferguson Enterprises Ferguson, LLC, headquartered in Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous c ...

(in the United States). 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 on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

. The company is registered in Jersey. The company continued to trade as Wolseley in the United Kingdom and Canada, until 2021 when Wolseley UK was sold to a private equity firm.

History

Wolseley

The Wolseley business began in 1887 making sheep shearing machinery.

Herbert Austin Herbert Austin, 1st Baron Austin (8 November 186623 May 1941) was an English automobile designer and builder who founded the Austin Motor Company. For the majority of his career he was known as Sir Herbert Austin, and the Northfield bypass ...

, who had worked on Wolseley's shearing machinery development in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metrop ...

, Australia from 1887, when he was aged just 20, was appointed its manager and received a share of its equity. 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.Roy Church, 'Austin, Herbert, Baron Austin (1866–1941)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'',

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2004 The postwar rise of

synthetic textile Synthetic fibers or synthetic fibres (in British English; see spelling differences) are fibers made by humans through chemical synthesis, as opposed to natural fibers that are directly derived from living organisms, such as plants (like cotton) ...

s sharply reduced the demand for

wool Wool is the textile fibre obtained from sheep and other mammals, especially goats, rabbits, and camelids. The term may also refer to inorganic materials, such as mineral wool and glass wool, that have properties similar to animal wool. A ...

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

Ferguson

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. In 1984, some of the manufacturing businesses were sold off, and since that time Wolseley has been mainly a distribution business. 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. Acquisition of many more distribution businesses followed. In April 2000, Wolseley sold most of its remaining manufacturing businesses to

Cinven Cinven is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States based corporat ...

for £215 million. Wolseley issued a profit warning in July 2008, after the

credit crunch A credit crunch (also known as a credit squeeze, credit tightening or credit crisis) is a sudden reduction in the general availability of loans (or credit) or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from banks. A credit cr ...

, and announced 6,000 job losses. It sold Build Center and Brossete to

Saint-Gobain Compagnie de Saint-Gobain S.A. () is a French multinational corporation, founded in 1665 in Paris and headquartered on the outskirts of Paris, at La Défense and in Courbevoie. Originally a mirror manufacturer, it now also produces a variety of ...

in July 2011, and ISB (Importation et Solution Bois) Group in April 2015. Bois & Matériaux went to OpenGate Capital in November 2015. Following a 2016 restructuring of the UK business (based in

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and ...

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. In January 2021, Wolseley UK was acquired by

Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...

, for £308 million.

Ferguson plc

Wolseley announced it would rebrand as Ferguson effective 31 July 2017, because almost all of its business was now in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

, in the name of Ferguson Enterprises. It continued to use the name Wolseley in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...

and Canada, for its brand recognition. The stock listing switched to new holding company Ferguson plc on 1 August 2017. In January 2021, Wolseley UK's sale to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice completed Ferguson plc's shift to north America. The company moved its primary listing to the US and consequently ceased to be a constituent of the

FTSE 100 Index The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...

on 12 May 2022.

Operations

Ferguson is organised geographically as follows: *United States (trading as Ferguson Enterprises) including

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean S ...

*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).

References

External links

{{Construction industry in the United Kingdom Wholesalers of the United Kingdom Companies based in Berkshire Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange Business services companies established in 1887 Building materials companies of the United Kingdom