Homebase

For other uses, see Homebase (disambiguation).

Homebase Limited

File:Homebase logo.png
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail / Home improvement
Founded	1979 (as Sainsbury's Homebase)
Headquarters	Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire Wallington, London
Key people	Echo Lu (Managing Director)
Products	DIY Tools Paint & Decor Furniture Homewares Outdoor Living Kitchens Bathrooms Gardening
Revenue	£1.49 billion (2013–14)
Parent	Home Retail Group
Slogan	Make your House your Home
Website	www.homebase.co.uk

Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre, with 323 stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The company is part of Home Retail Group, together with Argos.

Homebase recorded sales figures of £1.49 billion for the last financial year (2013–2014). Homebase made an operating profit of £18.9 million for the year 2013–2014.

History

A former Texas Homecare branch in Harrogate, North Yorkshire now in Homebase branding.

Homebase, Cambridge Retail Park (2008)

Homebase was founded by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and Belgian retailer GB-Inno-BM in 1979, as Sainsbury's Homebase. This was to bring a supermarket-style layout to the British Do It Yourself (DIY) market. The first store was in Croydon, opening on 3 March 1981, located on the Purley Way.

In May 1995, Homebase tripled in size, when J Sainsbury plc bought rival store group Texas Homecare, from the Ladbroke Group plc. These stores were rebranded, and converted to the Homebase format, beginning in February 1996, with the store in Longwell Green, Bristol, with the process being completed by 1999. In October 1999, Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of 10 Homebase stores across Ireland.

On 22 December 2000, Sainsbury's sold the Homebase chain, in a two-fold deal worth £969 million. In March 2001, the sale of the chain of 283 stores to venture capitalist Schroder Ventures generated £750 million, and the sale of 28 development sites to rival B&Q's parent company, Kingfisher plc generated £219 million. At the time, the chain had 13% of the United Kingdom market, with 283 stores and 17,000 employees, behind B&Q and Focus Do It All.

In November 2002, Homebase was sold again, this time to GUS plc (formerly Great Universal Stores plc) for £900 million, where it became part of Argos Retail Group (ARG). On 10 October 2006, GUS completed a demerger of its remaining two businesses, Experian and ARG. ARG was renamed Home Retail Group, within which Homebase now operates.

Homebase, Antrim, Northern Ireland (2009)

A Homebase branch incorporating a branch of Argos in Moor Allerton, Leeds. Since 2014, the Home retail group has been creating hybrid branches, within formerly solely Homebase branches.

In 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 paid was £40 million in cash. The properties were transferred over the period up to 31 December 2007, and were then re-fitted to the Homebase fascia over the course of several months. No other infrastructure, and no merchandise stock were acquired as part of the transaction, although staff in these Focus stores transferred across to Homebase.

In May 2014, Homebase launched the Homebase Design Centres. The new-look stores have a Decorating Ideas and Advice Centre, offering touch screen technology, to help customers transform the look of rooms in their homes. In October 2014, Home Retail Group announced that it would close around a quarter of Homebase stores by 2019, following a review of the business. It was also confirmed that it would increase the number of Argos and Habitat concessions within Homebase stores.

In April 2015, former Tesco executive Echo Lu succeeded Paul Loft as Managing Director.

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

In May 2009, Homebase discontinued its own loyalty program, the Spend & Save Card and replaced it with the Nectar loyalty card scheme, the United Kingdom's largest retail loyalty card. The Spend & Save card had been used by Homebase since 1982, and was believed to be one of the first store loyalty cards in the world.

Homebase allows customers to collect and redeem points within its stores, becoming the first national DIY retailer to participate in this way. Although rival 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.

Advertising

From 1999–2005, Homebase used former Men Behaving Badly couple Neil Morrissey and Leslie Ash as a couple. Morrissey and Ash were the face of the brand for six years, until March 2005 when Homebase launched a series of new advertisements created by Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, featuring the new slogan "Make a house a home."

From 2006–2009, Homebase used the song "Love Machine" by Girls Aloud in their TV Adverts. From 2009–2013, "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John featuring Victoria Bergsman is used, During 2009–2010, the transformation of Carlisle railway station was one of the most expensive adverts Homebase has produced to date.

Homebase Ireland

Homebase runs fifteen stores in Ireland. On 16 July 2013, an interim examiner was appointed by the High Court. Homebase stated the purpose of the examinership was to place the company back on a "sustainable footing".

Controversy

In April 2013, Homebase faced criticism following outrage, after a poster from a store in London was released. The poster appeared to highlight the benefits of free labour through work experience, called Workfare. The offending poster depicts a number of volunteer staff at the Haringey branch and is captioned: “How the work experience programme can benefit your store. Would 750 hours with no payroll costs help YOUR store?”"

Homebase released contradictory statements, the first stating 'The company is not signed up to the Workfare Programme' and the second that 'we have decided to make no further commitment to the Job Centre work experience programme'.

Neither statement appears to have deterred groups organising protests, with organisers calling Homebase’s scheme a "profit-driven attack" on workers and benefit claimants. Before adding "We hope Homebase will soon join, Wilko, Superdrug and more than twenty other companies who have ended their involvement with workfare. However we are prepared for further protests in the weeks and months ahead should they fail to do so."

External links

• Official website