A SPECIALIST home furnishings business is to expand following a buyout.

Mike Wardle has bought Granite Worktops Direct, the light commercial division of Janotas Stone, in Durham City.

Mr Wardle, 35, who has been the company's sales manager for the past three years, will rebrand the business as Dunelm Stone.

The former Durham County rugby player plans to extend the company by launching a stone flooring range to go with the granite kitchen worktops - both markets in the UK that he believes are ripe for expansion.

He said: "Granite has been a vogue material for worktops in this country for the past two or three years.

"In Italy, 92 per cent of households have granite kitchen work surfaces. In this country, it is just three per cent.

"The materials have become much more affordable in the last few years, making it a real boom product."

Mr Wardle bought the business for an undisclosed sum from Janotas' managing director, Peter Smith.

Mr Smith, 41, is moving into premises up the road to concentrate on the large-scale end of the operation, supplying stone for projects such as hotel building.

He said: "Mike has been effectively running the company for the past two years.

"So when it became clear that I needed to spend more time on other aspects of our business, both here and in Portugal, Mike made me an offer I could not refuse."

Published: 11/01/2005