VICTORIA, the Kidderminster carpet manufacturer, is to buy an Australian underlay and hard wood flooring maker in a £20m deal.

The carpet company, which is headquartered in the town's Worcester Road, has agreed terms for the business and assets of Dunlop Flooring, which operates from sites in Sydney and Melbourne. It is being bought from Pacific Brands, a group recently taken over by Hanesbrands, an American clothing company based in North Carolina, which employs 50,000 people internationally.

Geoff Wilding, chairman of Victoria, said: "Dunlop is another important and strategic acquisition for us, and one which reinforces our strategy of targeting earnings-enhancing acquisitions in addition to organic growth. It will make a positive contribution to Victoria's profits while diversifying our market exposure. Post-completion, nearly 30 per cent of Victoria's earnings will come from Australia, a dynamic and growing market and a strong economy.

"It has been some 16 months since our last acquisition in Australia, Melbourne-based Quest Carpets, which has now been fully integrated within Victoria and is contributing materially to our outstanding performance in the Australian market. Our strategy of achieving scale through acquisitions and using that scale to extract genuine synergies continues to deliver value for the group and we look forward to developing the Dunlop business as part of Victoria."

For the year ended June 30, 2016, Dunlop Flooring generated unaudited revenues of £30m.

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