DARWEN: Crown Paints, which has been put up for sale by 'turnaround specialist' Endless, has bought Newland Paint Supplies. The company has branches in York, Hull, Harrogate, Bridlington and Scunthorpe.
Newland, founded in 1985, has a turnover in excess of £1m a year. It will increase Crown's UK and Ireland decorating centres to 134. The business will continue to trade as Newland.
Brian Davidson, chief executive of Crown, said: "The acquisition of Newland Paint Supplies fits with our growth strategy and will add significantly to our top line while bringing into the Crown Decorating Centre network five new stores and a number of highly experienced staff.
"Over the last 12 months we have invested in our stores in order to meet growing demand from both our trade and retail customers. We continue to invest in the Crown Decorating Centre network with plans to add a further four stores by the end of 2011."
Endless backed a management buyout of Crown from Dutch group Akzo Nobel in 2008. In January last year, Crown secured a £25m funding boost to help it expand and invest in plant and machinery, as well as a revamp of its decorator centres.
