Acquisition

Wolseley PLC
10 March 2008


                                  NEWS RELEASE
                                  10 March 2008


                                  Wolseley plc
                              Acquisitions Update
                     £33 million spent on five acquisitions


Wolseley plc, the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and
heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building
materials, announced today five bolt-on acquisitions for an aggregate
consideration of £33 million. In a full year, these bolt-on acquisitions are
expected to add approximately £45 million to total revenue. Goodwill and
intangible assets related to these acquisitions is estimated to be around £23
million. Since the beginning of the financial year on 1 August 2007, a total of
15 bolt-on acquisitions in Europe and North America have been completed for an
aggregate consideration of approximately £203 million. These 15 acquisitions are
expected to add approximately £263 million to Group revenue in a full year and
will be beneficial to the Group's trading margin in the current financial year.


Details of the latest acquisitions are as follows:

North America

On 3 December 2007, Ferguson acquired the assets of C.B. Group, Inc. trading as
JC Plumbing Supply ('JC Plumbing') from James Cheng, John Cheng and Hup Cheng.
JC Plumbing is a distributor operating from two facilities in San Francisco. The
acquisition of JC Plumbing provides entry into the plumbing fixtures market in
the heart of San Francisco. In the year ended 31 December 2006, JC Plumbing had
revenue of $4.4 million (£2.2 million) and gross assets of $1.1 million (£0.5
million) at that date.

On 1 February 2008 Stock Building Supply acquired certain assets of Precision
Doors & Hardware, LLC. ('Precision Doors') from Fred Sachs, Mike Iwanicki and
Steve Thodos. Precision Doors specialises in sales, installation, service and
repair of commercial and industrial doors, frames, door hardware, washroom
accessories and control systems operating from five locations in the Washington
D.C. metro area. In the year ended 31 December 2006, Precision Doors had revenue
of $43.3 million (£21.8 million) and gross assets of $8.6 million (£4.3 million)
at that date.

On 19 February 2008 Ferguson acquired the assets of Mastercraft Cabinets, Inc.
('Mastercraft') from Kurt Wurstle and DaVida Wurstle. Mastercraft is a cabinet
distributor operating from a single facility in Naples, Florida. In the year
ended 31 December 2006, Mastercraft had revenue of $5.1 million (£2.6 million)
and gross assets of $0.05 million (£0.03 million) at that date.


Europe

On 28 November 2007 Wolseley Eastern Europe a.s. signed an agreement,
conditional upon obtaining Slovak competition clearance, to acquire Gama Myjava
s.r.o ('Gama'). The offer has now been approved by the Slovak competition
authority and completion subsequently took place on 3 March 2008. Gama is a
plumbing, heating and sanitary ware distributor operating from eight branches in
Slovakia and five branches in the Czech Republic. In the year ended 31 December
2006, Gama had consolidated revenue of SKK741.6million (£16.0 million) and gross
assets of SKK214.0 million (£4.6 million) at that date.

On 29 February 2008 Wolseley UK acquired PFC Corofil Firestops Ltd and its
subsidiaries ('PFC') from Geoff Ashling. PFC is a distributor of a wide range of
specialist passive fire protection products operating from a single location in
Surrey. In the year ended 31 March 2007, PFC had revenue of £1.9 million and
gross assets of £0.3 million at that date.


The divisional split of the total acquisition spend since 1 August 2007 is:

Division                           No. of Acquisitions        Spend £ Million

Europe                                      5                        91
North America                              10                       112
TOTAL ACQUISITION SPEND                    15                       203



Chip Hornsby, Group Chief Executive of Wolseley said:

'I am pleased to announce these acquisitions. They are excellent businesses that
broaden our product and geographic coverage and support our strategy of growing
the business through acquisition and organic growth.'



ENQUIRIES:

Analysts/Investors:

Guy Stainer                                         [phone]
Group Investor Relations Director                   [phone]

John English                                        [phone]
Vice President, Investor Relations, North America   [phone]


Media:

Mark Fearon                                         [phone]
Director of Corporate Communications

Brunswick                                           [phone]
Andrew Fenwick
Kate Miller



Exchange Rates

The following exchange rates have been used for acquisitions noted above:
$1.9856: £1; SKK46.35: £1.


Certain statements included in this announcement may be forward-looking and may
involve risks, assumptions and uncertainties that could cause actual results to
differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward looking
statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, projections
relating to results of operations and financial conditions and the Company's
plans and objectives for future operations including, without limitation,
discussions of the Company's business and financial plans, expected future
revenues and expenditures, investments and disposals, risks associated with
changes in economic conditions, the strength of the plumbing and heating and
building materials market in North America and Europe, fluctuations in product
prices and changes in exchange and interest rates. All forward-looking
statements in this respect are based upon information known to the Company on
the date of this announcement. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly
update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise. It is not reasonably possible to
itemise all of the many factors and events that could cause the Company's
forward-looking statements to be incorrect or that could otherwise have a
material adverse effect on the future operations or results of the Company.


Notes to Editors

Wolseley plc is the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and
heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building
materials in North America, the UK and Continental Europe. Group revenue for the
year ended 31 July 2007 was approximately £16.2 billion and trading profit was
£877 million. Wolseley has around 79,000 employees operating in 27 countries
namely: Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland,
France, Greenland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Norway, Panama,
Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, The
Netherlands, Trinidad & Tobago, UK, USA. Wolseley is listed on the London and
New York Stock Exchanges (LSE: WOS, NYSE: WOS) and is in the FTSE 100 index of
listed companies.


                                   -- ENDS --






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