Lords Group acquires Advance Roofing Supplies for £3.74m

Building materials distributor Lords Group has acquired roofing materials supplier Advance Roofing Supplies for £3.74m in cash.

Lords said on Thursday that it had already paid £3.49m for Advance Roofing, which operates from locations in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and Long Marston in Hertfordshire, with a further £250,000 set to be paid twelve months after completion, funded from existing resources.

The AIM-listed group expects to expand the Advance Roofing brand via implant branches into relevant merchanting locations, starting with the Beaconsfield site which itself was currently undergoing an extensive redevelopment to enable extended product range and capacity.

Lords expect the addition of Advance to the wider group to be immediately earnings accretive post-completion.

For the year ended 31 March, Advance Roofing generated underlying earnings of £600,000 on revenues of £6.8m.

Chief executive Shanker Patel said: "The acquisition of Advance Roofing Supplies further strengthens our service capabilities to existing customers and will offer significant synergies with our Merchanting division.

"We are delighted to bring Advance Roofing Supplies into the group, and welcome their 15 employees to our team, as we continue to focus on serving our customers with a wider range of products and services."

As of 0930 GMT, Lords shares were down 2.02% at 118.07p.