Leading plumbing and heating distributor Wolseley has washed its hands of PwC after more than 50 years and has appointed Deloitte as its auditors after completing a formal tender process, reports Pat Sweet
Following completion of the audit of the accounts for the year ending 31 July 2015, Deloitte will be appointed as Wolseley's statutory auditors, subject to approval by shareholders at the 2015 annual general meeting, the FTSE 100 company said in an announcement.
Darren Shapland, chairman of Wolseley's audit committee, said: ‘We thank PricewaterhouseCoopers for their significant contribution and dedication as Wolseley's auditors and we look forward to working with Deloitte in the future.’
PwC has been the auditor to the Wolseley group and its previous holding company since before the company first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1961.
In its annual report for 2014, Wolseley noted there was no record of any tender of the audit contract, but said it now planned to conduct a format tender process in the light of changes to the UK governance Code and ‘the new regulatory environment which will soon place an obligation on listed companies to rotate their auditor periodically.’
According to the 2014 annual report, Wolseley paid a total of £4.8m to PwC in fees. Of this, £3.4m was for audit services and £1.4m for other non audit services, largely related to tax advisory and corporate responsibility work. This was lower than the previous year, when PwC again received £3.4m for audit work but was paid more for non audit services (£2.2m), bringing the 2013 total to f £5.6m.
Wolseley is the world's largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products to professional contractors and a leading supplier of building materials in the UK, US and Europe. Total reported revenue for the year ended 31 July 2014 was £12.77bn and trading profit was £761m.
