Stock Building Supply sells commercial door division to Charlotte company

Raleigh-based Stock Building Supply has sold most of its commercial door and hardware division to a Charlotte company as it continues to shed assets in order to focus on the residential market.

The division, SBS Commercial Door & Hardware, was bought by The Cook & Boardman Group. Included in the sale are SBS divisions in North Carolina, Florida, Utah, Idaho, Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia.

Stock retained its commercial door and hardware operations in New Mexico and California.

"The commercial door unit is a strong business but is not core to our strategy," said Joe Appelmann, Stock's CEO, in a release. "The sale allows Stock to intensify its focus on the residential sector."

Prior to the housing bust, Stock's former British parent, Wolseley Plc, used cheap credit to gobble up dozens of companies in an attempt to diversify beyond Stock's specialty of residential construction.

Stock's business -- selling windows, doors, roofing and other housing material -- largely dried up when the housing market collapsed.

The company went through a bankruptcy restructuring last year, a process that resulted in Stock exiting a number of markets and shedding thousands of jobs.

Stock was rescued by The Gores Group, a California private equity firm, which bought a 51 percent stake from Wolseley.

Stock has since abandoned efforts to diversify beyond residential construction and has left 28 markets that represented a third of the company's sales. Its remaining 100 locations are in 20 U.S. markets.