A NATIONAL kitchen and bathroom supplier and plumbing and heating merchant has closed its showroom and store in York.

Plumbase, situated near York Barbican in Fawcett Street, shut its doors earlier this month.

The firm's signs have disappeared from walls and a scrawled, ungrammatical sign tied yesterday to a locked gate stated: "Closed for business - delivery's (sic) accepted.'

The firm's HQ did not respond yesterday to repeated requests for comment by The Press but an employee at another Plumbase store in Yorkshire said he understood that the York showroom and store had closed for good.

The closure comes less than four years after Plumbase opened a new showroom at the site, which stretched to over 3000sqft, and incorporated a revamped bathroom area as well as a new kitchen offering.

Andrew Arnold, Plumbase divisional showroom manager for the North and Scotland said then there had been months of hard work 'to 'create a showroom we can be proud of,' adding:"This marks an exciting new phase for the team and we look forward to welcoming more people through our doors."

Plumbase is the fourth largest plumbing and heating merchant with a network of 220 branches across the UK, focussing on a customer base of domestic and commercial engineers, plumbers and maintenance contractors, supplying heating, plumbing, bathrooms, showers and boiler spares.