Community relations

The Group recognises its responsibility to support the communities in which our businesses operate and to act as a good corporate citizen.

Wolseley is a member of Business in the Community in the UK and continues to work with that organisation to help develop our approach and practice.

The Group’s businesses are involved in a wide range of initiatives for the benefit of local communities.

Wolseley UK is supporting British Gymnastics, the UK national governing body for the sport, as part of the FTSE-British Olympic Association initiative. As the UK builds up to hosting the Olympic Games in 2012, the initiative aims to link companies with sports’ governing bodies to help improve the effectiveness of their business delivery and performance. The initial focus of the Wolseley UK-British Gymnastics partnership will be executive level consultation, strategic marketing guidance, commercial proposition development, customer research and targeted marketing activities. Over the coming months and years, it is hoped that many Wolseley UK employees will be able to get involved with the partnership, especially at a local level, where British Gymnastics promotes its sport at schools and clubs in employees’ communities.

Ferguson in the USA actively promotes the education and development of young people in Newport News, where Ferguson’s head office is based. Involvement with organisations such as the Boy Scouts of America, the Boys & Girls Club, Achievable Dream, Preschool Partners and the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program emphasise the company’s commitment to the development of future community leaders. Ferguson and Stock also made substantial donations to the Jamestown Foundation, the Virginia State Agency that manages the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center history museums, supporting the acquisition of artefacts, new exhibit features and educational programmes.

Silvan, one of DT Group’s subsidiaries in Denmark, has embarked on a programme to encourage the employment of people aged over 50 and receiving unemployment or disability benefit. The programme offers flexible working hours, practical training with hands-on experience in one of Silvan’s stores, personal coaching and mentoring and continued personal monitoring with the aim of over 70 per cent of participants obtaining paid employment at the end of the programme.

The Group’s North American businesses continued their support for Habitat for Humanity, a non-profit organisation that seeks to eliminate substandard housing and homelessness. As part of this programme, in excess of $2 million in cash and goods in kind was contributed across North America and a national partnership has been established whereby branches throughout North America make donations of materials for every Habitat house built. This is expected to benefit up to 5,000 houses in the next year.

Ferguson also donates to ReStores across the USA through both product donation and employees’ volunteer time. ReStore is a network of building material warehouses that collects donated materials from individuals, businesses and building contractors to be resold to the public for a profit. The profits made from the sale of these materials fund the construction of Habitat for Humanity homes across North America.