Homebase store in Antrim, Northern Ireland, August 2009
Homebase is a British home improvement store and garden centre, with 350 stores across the United Kingdom and the
Republic of Ireland. It is well known by its green and orange colour scheme. Together with its sister company Argos (with 750 stores), it forms part of the larger Home Retail Group.
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 March 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 and the Last 60 Texas stores were converted to Homebase in 1999. There are now 350 nationwide stores.
In October 1999 Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of seven Texas stores in Northern Ireland and three Texas stores in the Republic of Ireland, which were converted into Homebase stores.
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[2] 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 the Home Retail Group, which Homebase now operates as part of.
In early October 2007 it was announced that Home Retail Group, had signed a contract for the purchase of 27 leasehold properties from Focus DIY. The purchase price being paid is £40m in cash. The properties are expected to be transferred over the period up to 31 December 2007 and will then be re-fitted to the Homebase fascia over the course of several months in readiness for the peak spring period. No other infrastructure and no merchandise stock are being acquired as part of the transaction, although staff in these Focus stores will transfer across to Homebase.
Supply Chain
Early in its history, Homebase used its Sainsbury's experience to move into using central warehouses from which to deliver its stock. By the 1990s it was receiving the vast majority of its stock into central warehouses, then delivering it to stores. Homebase still receives a few direct deliveries to its stores from manufacturers and vendors.
Nectar loyalty card
From May 2009 Homebase will discontinue its own current loyalty program, the Spend & Save Card. It will be joining the Nectar loyalty card scheme, the UK's largest retail loyalty card. Existing Spend & Save Customers will receive Homebase vouchers for any remaining points they have earned once the customer has joined the Nectar scheme instead. Homebase will allow customers to collect and redeem points within its stores, becoming the first national DIY retailer to participate in this way. Although competitors B&Q also have a system for processing Nectar points, this is only available on their website, and even then, points may only be spent, not collected. [3]
TV Adverts
During the late 1990s early 2000s, Homebase used former Men Behaving Badly couple Neil Morrissey and Leslie Ash as a couple. They were used for several years. From 2006-2009 Homebase used the song "Love Machine" by Girls Aloud in their TV Adverts. From March 2009 "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman is used.
See also
References
External links
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J Sainsbury plc |
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Annual revenue: £18,518 million GBP (▲7% FY 2007) · Employees: 153,000 ·
Stock symbol: (LSE: SBRY) · Website: j-sainsbury.co.uk |
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