Wolseley plc, a global distributor of plumbing and heating products as well as building materials, announced five bolt-on acquisitions this month, including two by Ferguson and two in Europe. These acquisitions are expected to add 110 million pounds to total revenue.

Wolseley subsidiary Stock Building Supply has acquired ProSource Building Supply Ltd, Houston, TX, a construction services business supplying commercial doors, trim, hardwood, related specialty products and installation services. In the year ended Dec. 31, 2006, ProSource had revenue of $17.2 million. The acquisition is in line with Stock’s goal of expanding in the commercial and industrial markets. More&nbsp ;

Another Wolseley company, Ferguson, has acquired Western Air Systems & Controls Inc., an exclusive Trane HVAC distributor for the states of California and Nevada with three facilities. In the year ended Dec. 31, 2006, Western Air had revenue of $59.6 million. Ferguson has also acquired Davidson Pipe Company Inc., a pipes, valves and fittings distributor in the New York metropolitan market with 2006 sales of $125.8 million. More

London-based global electronics distributor Premier Farnell saw second-quarter sales growth of 3 percent, despite a more challenging North American market. Revenue was 178.9 pounds (US$363.3 million) in the second quarter and 362.5 million pounds (US$736M) in the first half. Web sales were up 30 percent in the quarter. More&nbsp ;

Klein Cutlery Inc., an affiliate of hand tool manufacturer Klein Tools, Lincolnshire, IL, has acquired Heritage Cutlery, Bolivar, NY, from Rogers, Lunt and Bowlen Company. Heritage Cutlery is a manufacturer of hot-forged scissors and shears for a wide variety of markets including electrical and industrial. Heritage has about 900 distributors in the U.S., Canada, Australia and Europe. The new company will operate under the name Klein Cutlery LLC. No changes in management are anticipated. More&nbsp ;

Actuant Corp., Milwaukee, WI, has acquired Templeton, Kenly & Co, Inc., Broadview, IL, for $48 million in cash. TK produces hydraulic pumps and tools, mechanical jacks, wrenches, and actuators. Its products are sold under brand names Simplex, Uni-Lift, and Pow’r-Riser. TK has $33 million in sales in the past year. More&nbsp ; &nbsp ;

Construction spending during July 2007 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1,169.1 billion, 0.4 percent below the revised June estimate of $1,173.2 billion. The July figure is 2.0 percent below the July 2006 estimate of $1,192.9 billion. Year-to-date, construction spending was 3.4 percent below the same period in 2006. More&nbsp ;

Industrial production rose 0.2 percent in August after an increase of 0.5 percent in July. At 114.4 percent of its 2002 average, total industrial production in August was 1.7 percent above its year-earlier level. Manufacturing output fell 0.3 percent in August after five consecutive months of increases. Capacity utilization for total industry was unchanged, at 82.2 percent, a rate 0.2 percentage point below August 2006 but 1.2 percentage points above its 1972-2006 average. More&nbsp ; &nbsp ;

U.S. distributors’sales of power transmission/motion control products dropped 7.0% from June to July after a rise in sales for the past two months, according to the July 2007 month-end trend data for distributors and manufacturers of PT/MC products by the Power Transmission Distributors Association. Sales in July 2007 were 11% higher than July 2006. Canadian distributors’sales in PT/MC products fell 9.0% June to July 2007. More

Wolseley plc reports there are no signs yet of any upturn in the U.S. housing market; it is also seeing the repairs, maintenance and improvement market start to soften. A weaker dollar and price deflation in lumber and panels has also hurt its North American building materials business. In its preliminary results for the year ended July 31, 2007, Wolseley had sales of 16.2 billion pounds (US$32.7 billion), up 14.6% from the previous year. Operating profit fell slightly. North American revenues declined slightly overall, reflecting slow sales by Stock Building Supply. Ferguson, the plumbing/HVAC business, had 5.5% organic growth. More&nbsp ;

The Producer Price Index for Finished Goods fell 1.4 percent in August, seasonally adjusted, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Core inflation (minus food and energy) moved up 0.2 percent in August compared with a 0.1-percent increase a month earlier. More

Acme United Corporation, Fairfield, CT, has acquired the knife and cutting business of Tiger Sharp Technologies, Inc. The purchase price was $350,000. Revenues were $400,000 in 2006. Tiger Sharp sells knives to independent knife dealers, industrial wholesalers, and companies such as John Deere and Browning. More

Dana Corporation, Toledo, OH, has completed the sale of its North American coupled products business to Coupled Products LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wanxiang (USA) Holdings Corporation. The sale concludes the divestiture of Dana’s fluid products business. More&nbsp ; &nbsp ;

July U.S. manufacturing technology consumptiontotaled $271.37 million, according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’&nbsp ; Association. This total was down 22 percent from June, and down 9.5 percent from the total of $300.01 million reported for July 2006. Year-to-date, 2007 was up 5.3 percent compared with 2006. More&nbsp ;

Air Liquide, Houston, TX, has acquired Team One Technologies Inc., an independent producer and distributor of medical and specialty gases in Romeoville, IL. Air Liquide Healthcare America will own and operate the medical and specialty gas facility to support its growth initiatives in the Midwest medical gas market. The newly acquired facility will also supply Air Liquide’s non-medical packaged and specialty gas business. More&nbsp ; &nbsp ;

Chase Corp., Bridgewater, MA, a global manufacturer of specialty tapes, laminates, sealants and coatings, announced its subsidiary, Chase Protective Coatings Ltd, has acquired Long Products of Rye, East Sussex, England. Long Products is a manufacturer of waterproofing and corrosion protection systems for oil, gas and water pipelines and has been a major supplier to Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. More&nbsp ;

Hagemeyer NA has released its 2007-2008 Industrial Products catalog. The 900-page book features 28,000 items.

PetroLiance LLC, formed last year through the consolidation of four of the nation’s largest ExxonMobil distributors, has completed its first acquisition. The company has purchased Columbus-based AV Lubricants Inc. AV Lubricants is a provider of lubricants to the aviation industry and to mining operations in Ohio, Kentucky and neighboring states.

Brady Corp., Milwaukee, WI, reported sales rose 34 percent in fiscal 2007 to $1.36 billion. Organic growth was 4 percent. Acquisitions contributed 26 percent to sales. Profit for fiscal 2007 rose 5 percent to $109.4 million. In the fourth quarter, Brady sales rose 26 percent to $362.8 million. Organic growth was 5 percent from the prior-year quarter. Regionally, sales were up 25 percent in the Americas in the fourth quarter, 28 percent in Europe, and 25 percent in Asia/Pacific. More