Staff at Plumb Center and Parts Center stores across Kent are facing uncertainty after parent company Wolseley announced a series of branch closures and redundancies.

About 80 stores will close across the UK with the loss of up to 800 jobs under proposals revealed this week.

The move, which will see £100 million invested in the business, is expected to take two to three years and will save £25m to £30 million annually.

Wolseley UK has not revealed which stores will close and has launched a consultation with staff at affected sites.

Plumb Center and Parts Center have branches in Northfleet, Strood, Gillingham, Sevenoaks, Maidstone, Sittingbourne, Canterbury, Whitstable and Dover.

The plans for the firm’s plumbing and heating business will leave it with 450 branches across the country.

“The trends in our profitability have been disappointing and we need to take action to improve our customer proposition and the efficiency of our business..." - Patrick Headon, Wolseley UK

Patrick Headon, managing director of Wolseley UK, said: “We have put the customer at the heart of this review with the aim of making Wolseley the first choice specialist merchant in our chosen markets.

“The trends in our profitability have been disappointing and we need to take action to improve our customer proposition and the efficiency of our business.

“We have an outstanding team made up of hard working and dedicated people across the UK and we are very conscious of the impact this transformation of the business will have on some of them.

“We are therefore committed to carrying out this programme as sensitively as possible, using voluntary means to achieve the proposed headcount reductions wherever possible.

“Over time I’m confident our proposals will benefit both our colleagues in the UK and the customers they serve every day.”