Saint-Gobain Building Distribution has disposed of two non-core businesses not in line with the rest of its operations as per its ongoing portfolio optimization. The two companies are based in the US and the UK.
As part of its ongoing portfolio optimization, Saint-Gobain Building Distribution has disposed of two non-core businesses that lacked synergies with the rest of its operations: Meyer Decorative Surfaces (MDS) in the US and Ashworth in the UK.
MDS is a regional US one-stop distributor of a broad range of surfacing and complementary products for the kitchen and bathroom sectors. It had 15 branch locations and 200 employees in Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. It generated sales of USD 66 million in 2014. The MDS business assets were sold on 31 December 2014 to Rugby Architectural Building Products.
The Ashworth business distributes pipes, valves and fittings to the mechanical services and process industries, trading from six sites with 135 employees in the UK. In 2014, it generated sales of GBP 32 million. The deal was signed on 5 February 2015 with GIL Investments, with a completion date on 28 February 2015.
In 2015, Saint-Gobain is celebrating its 350th anniversary, 350 reasons to believe in the future. Backed by its experience and its capacity to continuously innovate, Saint-Gobain, the world leader in the habitat and construction market, designs, manufactures and distributes high-performance and building materials providing innovative solutions to the challenges of growth, energy efficiency and environmental protection. With 2013 sales of EUR 42 billion, Saint-Gobain operates in 64 countries and has nearly 190,000 employees.