Materials supplier Wolseley has made five acquisitions worth a total of 拢14m across Europe and the USA.

The purchases, which were announced in a trading statement, bring Wolseley's total spend on acquisition in the financial year to 拢436m.

PBM, the firm's French subsidiary, has acquired materials firm Charpentes Calonge and builders merchant Bigmat Boismat. Swiss arm Tobler has acquired pipe distributor Friosol from Pangas, and US business Ferguson has acquired the assets of heating supplier Colgan Distributors and cabinet maker Colgan Cabinets.

Charlie Banks, Wolseley group chief executive, said: "The acquisitions and other investments position us well for further growth in the second half. Although Europe remains slow, the US businesses enjoyed a strong start to the year and this encourages us for the months ahead."

The group, which is due to announce interim results on 21 March, said that business conditions in the group's principal markets had been broadly in line with comments made in its annual general meeting statement in November.

Including the effect of acquisitions, group sales for the five months to 31 December 2005 were up about 25% and trading profit rose about 20% compared with the same period in 2004.

In total, the 22 acquisitions completed in the financial year to date are expected to add about 拢697m to group turnover in a full year. Goodwill and intangibles related to the acquisitions are expected to be about 拢148m.