In December 2018, Travis Perkins announced a strategy to simplify the Group and to focus on its advantaged trade businesses. In line with this, tTravis Perkins' management team has confirmed the sale of its wholesale plumbing & heating business, Primaflow F&P, to Newbury Investments (UK).

The deal for Newbury Investments (UK), a specialist distribution group,  is for cash consideration of £46m before working capital adjustments. The sale process is expected to complete at the end of January 2020 and the proceeds will be used to reduce Group net debt.

Primaflow F&P is a national wholesale distributor of branded plumbing and heating systems and has been part of the Travis Perkins Group since 2010. For the year ended 31 December 2018, attributable profits after adjusting items were £5m. Gross assets amounted to £102m as at 30 June 2019.  Sale of the wholesale business will enable its remaining Plumbing & Heating businesses to focus on delivering market-leading service to our direct trade customers.

Nick Roberts, chief executive, commented: "The divestment of our wholesale plumbing & heating business is a further step in reducing the Group's overall complexity and enabling greater focus and more disciplined capital allocation to our advantaged trade-focused businesses."