Saint-Gobain has entered into exclusive negotiations with the Chausson Group for the acquisition of Panofrance, a specialist distributor of timber and panels for the construction and furnishing industries.

Panofrance had sales of approximately €160 million in 2020, around 30 points-of-sale throughout France and more than 600 employees and the acquisition will complement Dispano, a Saint-Gobain subsidiary which specialises in the trade of timber products and by-products with 46 points-of-sale in France and sales of €380 million in 2020.

The acquisition of Panofrance, which follows the recent acquisition of timber construction specialist Brüggemann in Germany, will allow Saint-Gobain to increase its geographical footprint on the fast-growing timber-based building systems market.

The strongly favourable outlook for timber products is underpinned by the new RE2020 environmental regulation in France, which is set to come into force on 1 January 2022.

Following completion of the information and consultation procedure with the employee representative bodies, and subject to the approval of the relevant competition authorities, the acquisition of Panofrance is expected to be finalised in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Saint-Gobain designs, manufactures and distributes materials and solutions for the construction, mobility, healthcare and other industrial application markets. It employs more than 167,000 people in 70 countries and achieved €38.1 billion in sales in 2020.

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