A TIMBER firm has hit the acquisition trail.

Palgrave Brown, based in Brinscall, has bought two new roof truss manufacturing sites in Darlington and Hampshire.

The sites will be added to Palgrave Brown's existing 13-strong national network of manufacturing and distribution centres.

The Darlington site supplies builders in the North East and North Yorkshire. Production at the Hampshire site, which will supply Southampton, Bournemouth and Poole, is expected to start in the autumn.

"We have already been supplying into these important areas from other plants," said Steve Pinner, operations director for Palgrave Brown. "But the addition of these two new sites will give us even more of an edge as the UK's biggest supplier of roof trusses."

Palgrave Brown was formed in a management buy out from Jewson last September and reported a turnover of nearly £14 million in the seven months to March 31.

The firm is on a major expansion programme with investments including a £1 million production facility for mouldings and a £240,000 computer system.

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