A building materials supplier which turned over £5m last year has been bought out by an international DIY group.

Direct Builders Merchants – which is based in Sittingbourne, Whitstable and Ashford – has been taken over by Grafton Group for an undisclosed sum.

Grafton has operations in the UK, Ireland and Belgium.

It has taken over the Kent firm to improve its coverage in the county and the South East generally and will integrate the firm into its Grafton Merchanting buildbase division.

Direct Builders Merchants had revenues of £4.8m last year.

Grafton Merchanting chief executive Mark Kelly said: “We are delighted to be able to extend our offering to building professionals across Kent.

“As well as welcoming new customers, we can reassure existing customers that that they will retain all of their existing terms as well as the added benefit of being able to trade across the wider Buildbase UK branch network.

“We look forward to working with the Direct Builders Merchants team, who we are sure will benefit from being part of a larger group.”