DROITWICH company will join the FTSE 100 following a major shake-up of the economic index.

Plumbing and bathroom material supplier, Wolseley Plc, is set to join the FTSE 100 after telecom and tech stocks were relegated in yesterday's quarterly review.

The region's water supplier, Severn Trent Water, is also due to be promoted.

Wolseley director, Steve Webster, said he was pleased to be back in.

"We've been in a number of times before - we came out again about a year ago when dot coms were riding high - but now the old economy companies are back in favour," he said, adding Wolseley had demonstrated a "consistently strong financial performance".

The company, based in Vines Lane, started in 1888 as a sheep shearing company and is now the world's largest plumbers' merchants, having entered the building materials distribution market in the 1970s. It owns retail chains Plumb Center and Builder Center.

Among the casualties was telecoms group Marconi, forced to lay off thousands of employees.