After launching an inquiry into its acquisition of retailer CTD Tiles last year, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has finally cleared Topps Tiles to go ahead and complete the takeover deal.
In August of last year, Topps Tiles acquired the CTD Tiles brands – including 30 retail locations – for £9m after the retailer fell into administration. However, in October 2024, the CMA announced it would launch a formal inquiry into the deal, as it was worried that the acquisition could potentially worsen market competition concerns.
This inquiry found that the acquisition could raise competition concerns in four geographic areas – Dorking, Aberdeen, Inverness and Edinburgh – warning the merger could lead to “worse deals and service” in those locations. The CMA said that Topps had to put forward potential solutions to these concerns, or it would proceed to a more in-depth investigation.
In February, Topps reportedly put forward potential remedies to the competition concerns, and on March 3, the CMA says it replied that it was considering the tiling giant’s offer, concluding “that there are reasonable grounds for believing that the undertakings offered, or a modified version of them, might be accepted by the CMA”.
As part of the remedies, Topps has offered to sell any site or sites (operated by either CTD or Topps) within the areas of concern. This reportedly includes store inventory, store-specific customer and supplier lists as well as store-level management and staff, so that no geographic areas would fail in the CMA’s competition findings.
The CMA says that there are already several potential purchasers for the sites, and Topps added that it has “already received expressions of interest covering all of the Divestment Sites from a range of potential purchasers”.
The CMA now considers that the solution “offered by Topps [is] clear-cut and appropriate to remedy, mitigate or prevent the competition concerns identified”. This means the organisation has now formally approved the proposed undertakings, in lieu of launching a formal phase two investigation.
In other news, following its acquisition by Topps, in February CTD Tiles revealed plans to move its warehouses from Birmingham to a new state-of-the-art facility in Milton Keynes.
