Colchester wholesaler Wilsons is taking over the customer accounts of Wm Granger, the Leicester wholesaler which ceased trading last month.
Richard Brown, Grangers' former owner, has teamed up with Wilsons to assist customers in transferring their accounts to Wilsons, and will work with the Colchester business until March 2013. All existing customers will continue to be serviced in the way that they are used to.

Wilsons is a family-owned wholesale business distributing nationally via carriers, and competing with better-known names like Decco, Home Hardware and Welch & Tidy, area sales manager Angus Hopkins told DIY Week.

It is primarily in the housewares and cleaning end of the market, and its core customer base is independent hardware retailers, but the takeover earlier this year of Jenkins Distribution has seen it begin to build a stronger position in garden products as well.

Granger distributed brushware, household products, ropes and twines, doormats, electrical accessories and pest control products from its Leicester base. The company's latest accounts disclose no turnover or profit figures, but show the stock valuation at £85k, and reveal that Granger's net worth went negative three years ago, and has got steadily worse.