Homebase
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Homebase Limited | |
 |
|
| Type | subsidiary of Home Retail Group |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1979 (as Sainsbury's Homebase) |
| Headquarters | Milton Keynes |
| Industry | Retail |
| Products | DIYTools Paint & Decor Furniture Homewares Outdoor Living |
| Parent | Home Retail Group (division of GUS plc) |
| Website | www.homebase.co.uk/ |
- For the former US home improvement store, see HomeBase.
Homebase is a DIY store and garden centre, with just over 300 stores across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It is well known by its green and orange colour scheme. Its main competitors are B&Q and Focus and in Ireland Atlantic Homecare. Some Homebase stores have a Laura Ashley Home Section.
As of July 2006, following the opening of four new stores, Homebase has 301 stores in the UK and Ireland.
[edit] History
Homebase was founded by Sainsbury's supermarket chain and Belgian retailer GB-Inno-BM in 1979 as Sainsbury's Homebase, to bring supermarket-style outlay to the British DIY market. Its first store was in Croydon, opening on the Purley Way on 3 April 1981. Homebase was tripled in size in 1995 with the acquisition of the rival Texas Homecare from the Ladbroke Group plc. These stores were rebranded and redesigned to the Homebase format, the first to be converted being in Longwell Green in Bristol in February 1996. There are now over 300 nationwide stores.
In October 1999 Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of seven Homebase stores (former Texas stores) in Northern Ireland and three stores in the Republic of Ireland.
Sainsbury's sold the Homebase chain in December 2000 in a two-fold deal worth £969 million. Sales of the chain of stores to venture capitalist Schroder Ventures[1] generated £750 million and sale of 28 development sites, which had been earmarked for future Homebase stores, were sold for £219 million to rival B&Q's parent company, Kingfisher plc. At the time, the chain had 13% of the UK market, behind B&Q and Focus Do It All.
Homebase was later sold on to GUS plc (formerly Great Universal Stores plc) in November 2002 for £900 million, where it formed part of the Argos Retail Group. On 10 October 2006, GUS completed a demerger between its two businesses Experian and ARG. ARG was renamed as, and Homebase now operates as part of, the Home Retail Group.
[edit] References
- ^ J Sainsbury plc (2001-03-02). Homebase sale completed. Press release. Retrieved on 2006-11-21.
