Wolseley to close 80 UK branches to tackle challenging market

Sept 27 (Reuters) - Heating and plumbing products supplier Wolseley (Frankfurt: A1W7PR - news) said on Tuesday it would close 80 UK branches and a distribution centre, leading to up to 800 job losses, as it looks to streamline its UK business, which has been facing tough competition.

The company said the steps would take two or three years to implement, resulting in restructuring charges of about 100 million pounds ($130 million) and expected annualised cost savings of 25 million pounds to 30 million pounds.

Wolseley said its end markets remained mixed with some uncertainty in the economic outlook, after reporting a record trading profit of 917 million pounds for the year ended July 31, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

($1 = 0.7696 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter)