Acquisition

Wolseley PLC
19 July 2002

                                                                    19 July 2002




                                  NEWS RELEASE


                                   WOLSELEY plc
     WOLSELEY ADDS TO UK  PIPELINE BUSINESS WITH A £23.5 MILLION ACQUISITION




Wolseley, the world's largest specialist trade distributor of heating and
plumbing products, has acquired the assets of Capper Plastics, MCA Hire Services
and Valvestock, as well as the issued share capital of Pat Murphy Sales &
Service Limited for £23.5 million in cash, subject to adjustment.  All of the
businesses acquired are part of Glynwed Pipe Systems Limited.



The acquired businesses specialise in the sale and distribution of plastic pipes
to the industrial and commercial markets and will be integrated into Wolseley
Centers' Pipeline business.  This acquisition will add 26 locations to
Pipeline's 14 specialist plastic branches, bringing Pipeline's total branch
network to 126.  The acquisition will enable Pipeline to increase market share
through wider geographic and product coverage in the civil, industrial and
underground plastics market in the UK.



Sales of the acquired businesses for the year ended 31 December, 2001 amounted
to £50.5 million, with trading profit of £3.3 million.  Net assets at 31
December 2001 were £14.8 million.



The acquisition of these four businesses will bring Wolseley's cumulative
acquisition spend for the financial year to date to £163.2 million, with
estimated goodwill of approximately £78 million.



Charles Banks, Group Chief Executive of Wolseley said:



'These businesses perfectly complement our existing Pipeline business in the UK.
They give us the opportunity of increasing our product offering to customers
in this area and improving our service through the addition of more branch
locations, including Pipeline's first entry into the plastics market in 
Ireland.'



                                    - Ends-


Enquiries:

Wolseley plc
Steve Webster, Group Finance Director                  Tel: + 44 (0)118 929 8700
Jacqueline Sinclair-Brown, Director of Corporate Communications


Brunswick Group
Sophie Fitton                                         Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7404 5959



Notes to Editors:



Wolseley plc will issue a pre- close trading update on 24 July 2002 and
Preliminary Results will be announced on 24 September 2002.



                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
              ASESEFW