Homebase is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 home improvement

Home improvement

Home improvement, home renovation or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home.-Types of home improvement:...

 store and garden centre

Garden centre

A garden centre is a retail firm that sells plants and products related to gardens as its primary business. It is open to the public, with facilities to care for and display plants.- UK :...

, with 350 stores across the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and the Republic of Ireland

Republic of Ireland

Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...

. It is well known by its green and orange colour scheme. Together with its sister company Argos (with 750 stores), it forms part of Home Retail Group. Homebase recorded sales figures of £1.57 billion pounds for the last financial year (2009-2010). Homebase made a profit of £41.2 million pounds for the year 2009-2010.

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 layout to the British DIY market. Its first store was in Croydon

Croydon

Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...

, opening on the Purley Way

Purley Way

Purley Way is a section of the A23 trunk road in the London Borough of Croydon, in the areas of Purley, Waddon and West Croydon, and has given its name to the out-of-town shopping area alongside it with a catchment area covering most of South London. It was designed as a bypass for Croydon and was...

 on 3 March 1981.

Homebase tripled in size in 1995 when it bought rival store group Texas Homecare

Texas Homecare

Texas Homecare was a chain of DIY stores in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, that operated from 1972 until 1999.-History:Texas Homecare was established in 1972 by Manny, Sydney and Gerald Fogel, who had previously founded the high street specialist paint and wallpaper chain Home Charm...

 from the Ladbroke Group plc

Ladbrokes

Ladbrokes plc is a British based gambling company. It is based in Rayners Lane in Harrow, London owned by Bhavin Kakaiya. From 14 May 1999 to 23 February 2006, when it owned the Hilton hotel brand outside the United States, it was known as Hilton Group plc...

. These stores were rebranded and converted to the Homebase format, beginning with the Longwell Green store in Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

 in February 1996, with the process being completed by 1999. In October 1999 Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of 10 Homebase stores across 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 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

Kingfisher plc

Kingfisher plc is a multinational retailing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest home improvement retailer in Europe and the third-largest in the world...

. At the time, the chain had 13% of the UK market, behind B&Q

B&Q

B&Q plc is a multinational DIY and home improvement retailer headquartered in Eastleigh, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1969 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingfisher plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange....

 and Focus Do It All.

Homebase was later sold on to GUS plc

GUS (retailer)

GUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001...

 (formerly Great Universal Stores plc) in November 2002 for £900 million, where it formed part of the Argos Retail Group

Argos Retail Group

Home Retail Group plc is a holding company for the UK and Republic of Ireland retailers Argos and Homebase. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...

. On 10 October 2006, GUS completed a demerger between its two businesses Experian

Experian

Experian plc, formerly known as CCN Systems, is a global credit information group with operations in 36 countries. The company employs 15,500 people with corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and operational headquarters in Nottingham, England and Costa Mesa, California, US...

 and ARG. ARG was renamed as the Home Retail Group, as part of which Homebase now operates.

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

Focus (DIY)

Focus DIY was a privately owned chain of DIY stores in the UK. It served the consumer DIY market sector, and most stores had some form of garden centre....

. 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.

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 discontinued its own loyalty program, the Spend & Save Card and replaced it with the Nectar loyalty card

Nectar loyalty card

Nectar is a loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom comprising partner companies including the supermarket chain Sainsbury's, American Express, and BP. A separate Nectar program operates in Italy....

 scheme, the UK'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 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.

TV adverts

During the late 1990s early 2000s, Homebase used former Men Behaving Badly

Men Behaving Badly

Men Behaving Badly is a British comedy that was created and written by Simon Nye. It follows the lives of Gary Strang and his flatmates, Dermot Povey and Tony Smart It was first broadcast on ITV in 1992...

couple Neil Morrissey

Neil Morrissey

Neil Anthony Morrissey is an English actor, media personality and businessman. He is best known for his role as Tony in Men Behaving Badly....

 and Leslie Ash

Leslie Ash

Leslie Ash is an English actress, best known for her role in the sitcom Men Behaving Badly. Her book My Life Behaving Badly: The Autobiography was published in 2007....

 as a couple. They were used for several years.
From 2006-2009 Homebase used the song "Love Machine" by Girls Aloud

Girls Aloud

Girls Aloud are a British and Irish pop girl group based in London. They were created through the ITV1 talent show Popstars The Rivals in 2002. The group consists of Cheryl Cole , Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. They are signed to Fascination Records, a Polydor...

 in their TV Adverts. From March 2009 "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John

Peter Bjorn and John are a Swedish indie rock band, formed in Stockholm in 1999 and named after the first names of the band's members: Peter Morén , Björn Yttling and John Eriksson .They are best known for the 2006 single "Young Folks", which...

 featuring Victoria Bergsman

Victoria Bergsman

Victoria Bergsman is a Swedish songwriter, musician, and vocalist best known as singer of the indie pop band The Concretes from 1995 to 2006. Since announcing her departure from the band on 24 July 2006 she has been recording for her new solo project Taken by Trees...

 is used, 2009- 2010 saw the transformation of Carlisle railway station

Carlisle railway station

Carlisle railway station, also known as Carlisle Citadel station, is a railway station whichserves the Cumbrian City of Carlisle, England, and is a major station on the West Coast Main Line, lying south of Glasgow Central, and north of London Euston...

 one of the most expensive adverts Homebase has produced to date.

External links

• Homebase
• BBC News
  BBC News
  BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
  
  : GUS snaps up Homebase
• BBC News
  BBC News
  BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
  
  : Sainsbury's sells Homebase
• Official garden design website