In a deal sealed yesterday, the owners of Wilbys Home Hardware have added a builder's merchant to their chain of three Suffolk and Norfolk hardware shops.
When the former owners of Bussens & Parkin in Mildenhall, Suffolk, were looking to sell due to retirement they approached husband-and-wife team Carl and Tina Wilby "because they knew their company would be okay with us", Mrs Wilby told diyweek.net.

"It's over 100 years old and it's fiercely independent, which is what we're into, and the owners didn't want it snapped up by the bigger merchants. They wanted it to remain exactly as it is. We've got visions for it ourselves, but still keeping the same family business with family values, because that's our tick box - and making sure the customers get the same proper service."

The Wilbys are not new to merchanting, having once run Border Building Supplies in Brandon and Attleborough. They sold the business in 2005 and became hardware retailers with the purchase of their first shop, in Brandon. However, the couple have since regretted the decision to dispose of the builder's merchant and are delighted not only to be back in that industry but with the fact that it opens up extra opportunities for the hardware stores.

Mrs Wilby explains: "Here at Wilbys Home Hardware I've now got a whole new outlook of stock I can get my hands on, for example kitchens and bathrooms, so it's opened up things like that. We even sell washing machines at Bussens & Parkin. So with Mildenhall and Brandon being so close they can work together, and our customers in Diss and Botesdale can effectively shop in Mildenhall. They'll be able to get anything at short notice."

She added that Bussens & Parkin would now be expanding its offer with the addition of bricks and blocks and paving slabs, and said that it would be retaining its name.