Regulatory News

Lords, a leading distributor of building materials in the UK, announces the sale of its wholly owned subsidiary entity, Lords at Home Ltd (‘Lords at Home’) including the Lords at Home brand. Lords at Home sells high quality homewares through five branches across West London and was the original Lords division which first opened in 1985.  The subsidiary, which has 31 employees, is considered non-core to the Group’s principal focus of building, plumbing, heating and DIY goods, and its sale will allow the Group to further focus on core areas of the Lords’ business.

The cash consideration for sale of the Lords at Home business is £805,000 payable in full on completion, with the sale proceeds to be retained within the Group and applied towards investments that meet the Group’s return on investment hurdle.  During the year ended 31 December 2022, Lords at Home generated £3.0 million in revenue and contributed £80,000 of EBITDA.  The purchaser of Lords at Home is the current Managing Director of the Lords at Home subsidiary.

Shanker Patel, Chief Executive Officer of Lords, commented: “I am confident that the sale of Lords at Home Ltd is a good outcome for all stakeholders across both Lords Group Trading Plc and Lords at Home Ltd. We are confident that under its new ownership, Lords at Home will uphold its customer and colleague first approach. As a Group we are focused on disciplined capital allocation to deliver strategic growth and the divestment of Lords at Home reflects this approach.”

The information contained within this announcement is deemed by the Company to constitute inside information pursuant to Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014 as it forms part of UK domestic law by virtue of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 as amended.  Upon the publication of this announcement via a Regulatory Information Service, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain.

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Notes to editors:

Lords is a specialist distributor of building, plumbing, heating and DIY goods.  The Group principally sells to local tradesmen, small to medium sized plumbing and heating merchants, construction companies and retails directly to the general public.

The Group operates through the following two divisions:

• Merchanting: supplies building materials and DIY goods through its network of merchant businesses and online platform capabilities.  It operates both in the 'light side' (building materials and timber) and 'heavy side' (civils and landscaping), through 25 locations in the UK.
  

• Plumbing and Heating: a specialist distributor in the UK of plumbing and heating products to a UK network of independent merchants, installers and the general public.  The division offers its customers an attractive proposition through a multi-channel offering.  The division operates over 16 locations enabling nationwide next day delivery service.
  

Lords was established over 35 years ago as a family business with its first retail unit in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire.  Since then, the Group has grown to a business operating from 41 sites.  Lords aims to become a £500 million turnover building materials distributor group by 2024 as it grows its national presence.

Lords was admitted to trading on AIM in July 2021 with the ticker LORD.L.  For additional information please visit www.lordsgrouptradingplc.co.uk.