Gone are the days of all your DIY needs in one convenient location – at least they will be for anyone living near 11 Homebase stores sold to Sainsbury’s.
The chain, which sold off Homebase in 2006, has snapped them up in a £130million deal that will see the sites converted into big supermarkets.
It will mean nearly 400,000 extra people will now live within a 10-minute drive of a Sainsbury’s supermarket, the chain claimed.
For any Homebase employee whose job is at risk as a result, Sainsbury’s is promising to give them at least an interview for one of the predicted 1,000 new roles
The company’s chief executive, Simon Roberts, said: ‘Sainsbury’s food business continues to go from strength to strength as we push ahead with our Next Level Sainsbury’s plan.
‘We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors and driving consistent growth in volume market share.
‘We want to build on this momentum which is why we are growing our supermarket footprint.
‘Our ambition is to be customers’ first choice for food and these new stores will showcase some of the best that Sainsbury’s supermarkets have to offer to even more communities around the country.’
A total of seven stores across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are confirmed to close before Christmas, with a remaining four believed to shut down shortly afterwards.
In some places, closing down signs have already appeared, advertising ‘Everything Must Go’ sales of up to 60%.
These are:
- Homebase Birmingham Sutton Coldfield
- Homebase Bromsgrove
- Homebase Cromer
- Homebase Derry/Londonderry
- Homebase Fareham
- Homebase Inverurie
- Homebase Lowestoft
- Homebase Newark
- Homebase Omagh
- Homebase Rugby
- Homebase Glenrothes
This is by no means the end of Homebase, which will has around 150 stores around the UK.
But the company is facing a rocky time, with managing director Damian McGloughlin telling suppliers this week that trading is ‘behind where we planned to be’.
Sainsbury’s, the second-largest supermarket chain after Tesco, already owns Argos and Habitat.
Although it closed 15 large supermarkets and dozens of Argos stores as Aldi and Lidl stepped up expansion, but it made £137million post-tax profits in the year ending March 2024.
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