BUILDERS merchant JH Walker, one of the oldest firms in York, has been sold.

The more than an acre of Foss-side yard in Foss Islands Road has been acquired for an undisclosed sum by Travis Perkins Plc, one of the biggest suppliers in Britain to the building and construction market.

Walker's 17 staff will be unaffected and its former managing director, Phil Daggett, will stay on for two years to advise the new branch manager, Kevin Mitchell.

The deal follows another acquisition in York last August, when Travis Perkins took over Yorkshire Sheet and Slate (YSS) on Clifton Moor industrial estate.

It is part of an acquisition spree over the past three years, which has seen Travis Perkins operating more than 740 branches in Britain.

JH Walker was established in 1906 both as a supplier of building materials and as a coal merchant. In 1925, the company commissioned the building of a sand dredger named Reklaw - Walker spelled backwards - which was a familiar site on the River Ouse for more than 50 years.

The company moved from its original site in Layerthorpe to Foss Islands Road, and ceased trading as a coal merchant to concentrate on supplying building materials.

The business remained in control of the Walker and Smith families until this month's sale.

Under Mr Daggett, who was the only working director, Walkers became the first builders' merchants in the city to be awarded the coveted BS5750 British Standard. It was also the first to boast a fully computerised stock control system and pioneered the use of vehicles with "brick-grab" cranes on the back.

In York's floods in 2000, the firm kept a running supply of sand for sandbags to prevent further damage to the city.

Andrew Popple, Travis Perkins' Yorkshire regional director, said: "JH Walker has built up a tremendous reputation in York and North Yorkshire and we will keep its name for the time being.

"In time it is our intention to develop the site further with the introduction of an even wider product offering - a one-stop-shop approach to merchanting in the City of York."

Travis Perkins was born out of a merger in 1988 between Travis & Arnold and Sandell Perkins, but can also trace its roots back over 200 years.

Now it supplies more than 100,000 product lines, including kitchens and bathrooms, hand and power tools, general building materials as well as a tool hire service.

It has been voted Builders' Merchant Of The Year six times since 1996.

Updated: 11:29 Wednesday, December 08, 2004