Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins has recently bought a 49% stake in the Mosaic Tile Company, a Yorkshire based firm which specialises in natural stone tiles. The company has an £8 million turnover and 25 staff across its various brands: Romana Tile Company, Verona Stone Company and Stone Nation.
This further strengthens Travis Perkins' offering in the tile arena, as it already owns the 86 strong Tile Giant chain (including the rebranded Tile Magic stores) which is the second biggest specialist tile retail player. The TP Groip also sells tiles through Wickes, its DIY chain, which is a strong player in this market area.
Topps Tiles
Topps is still going strong and currently has 301 stores in the UK. It is still a city favourite despite some rocky figures over the last few months, including closing its Dutch subsidiary. and rumours of hostile takeovers by CarpetRight. In fact the latest rumour is that Topps is contemplating the takeover of Norcros, H&R Johnson's parent company which also owns Triton Showers. This would catapult it from a retailer to a manufacturer of ceramics, adhesives and bathroom products, a completely different market and ballgame. It would be interesting to see how the rest of the market would react if it came to pass. Would the smaller independents continue to buy H&R Johnson's tiles, if they were contributing to the profitability of their largest competitor?
