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A refreshingly honest assessment of a very expensive own goal!
Up to 40 Homebase and Bunnings DIY stores could be closed, putting hundreds of jobs at risk, after the group’s Australian owner said it was reviewing the future of its UK business.
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The closures raised speculation that Wesfarmers, which bought Homebase for £340m two years ago, would be forced into exiting the UK after a botched takeover by its own admission.
Rob Scott, Wesfarmers’ managing director, said the 250-store UK business was expected to make an underlying loss of £97m in the half year after a £54m loss in the year to June 2017. The Australian group is taking a £584m writedown on the business, most of which relates to the value of the Homebase brand.
Scott said its performance had been below expectations, which was “obviously disappointing”. He said the problems were “through our own doing” as the company had ditched popular ranges such as kitchens and bathrooms and ousted concessions such as Laura Ashley, Habitat and Argos without having alternatives in place.
Scott said the “pace and nature of change had not been well received by Homebase customers”. Getting rid of the existing British management team also led to a loss of insight that had affected performance, he added.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/05/botched-takeover-threatens-homebase-bunnings-jobs
Their shops are grim, shabby and overpriced compared to the likes of B&Q. I'm amazed they're still in business. The one near me is always deserted.
They did a lovely job of our kitchen (well, their subcontractors did) about 10 years ago, but not had the urge to visit the shops at all since then.
Hmm, big, cheap sell off of paint products might be of interest though.
Their garden section is (or was) quite good, much better than B&Qs.
Our local one feels a bit like a sports direct with too much special offer stuff in the aisles. Much prefer b&q as a user experience and screwfix for just ordering stuff.
Same here. I've gone past the stage of dropping in on the offchance they have something I need, as they invariably don't, or it costs twice as much as at Screwfix/B&Q. Even the new ones on posh retail parks seem a bit run down, disorganised and unfriendly.
I thought that said, "Welshfarmers".
They all shut around me a few years ago, even the new ones. Over priced and limited range. Not surprised they are in trouble. Not even B & Q is doing that well.
Our local home base has been swapped for a bunnings and I blinking love it.
Aye, they've managed to make their stores look like a pile-it-high-cheap-shite warehouse, without the cheap bit.
Grim indeed.
their tool section has some nice keenly priced stuff
how ever its a ****ing shambles to find anything and the staff have no idea where anything is....
It is unusually frank for the management to take it on the chin like that - maybe that's a refreshingly Australian approach, we're much more used to bluster about circumstances outside our control, consumer confidence, Brexit (of course). I can't think of the last time a senior person commenting on bad results has actually faced up and said "we did it"
In fact, I'm not sure I can think of one, ever. Anyone?
I was wanting some skirting boards but our local branch had none. Another branch 20 miles away did though, but there was no way of ordering it to be sent to the local branch. I emailed customer services & said how crap this was. Next day I got a phone call from the local branch manager who said he'd personally pick the stuff up from the other branch & bring it over to his place.
Job jobbed!
That is all.
down under quite like bunnings vast range including all sorts of odds and sods spare parts and what in the uk would be hard to find thousands of small items priced as they should be......
and this:
[url] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/02/05/bunnings-axes-zero-hour-contracts-homebase-staff/ [/url]
But what about the sausage sizzle?
Never had an issue with Homebase. Sure it’s a bit of a PC World for DIY, but so is B&Q. I use them, Screwfix and Wickes for 90% of my stuff.
Ours used to be ok. Now it just feels like a DIY pound shop. Annoyingly though anything of any use is always over priced. But if you want a £1 plastic box that will last a week it's the place to go.
I won't touch the DIY chain stores anymore incl B&Q after having had enough of being over charged and/or given bad advice by staff who clearly didn't know. I now make a point of going to the "trade sellers/merchants". Eg local plumbers merchant is superb and always makes sure you buy the correct item. Local Dulux Trade Supplier is the same. While I'd actually happily pay more for the customer service/knowledge they are actually often much cheaper.
When B&Q stopped doing Dulux paint mixing (in favour of their own brand), Homebase became our go-to. It is a bit weird in there though. Feels more like a homeware shop now.
Screwfix/tool station if I know what I want
B&Q/Wickes if I need to have a look first.
Homebase - almost never? The range of stuff is just rubbish. E.g. I bought some 'araldite' (actually evo stick branded epoxy for £5) at lunch for work, in b&q they would have had that, araldite and their own brand for 99p.
I was never a fan of them years ago but recently some bargains to be had although you need a sharp eye to spot them Wera screwdriver set £8 usually 25 quid, 110v defender lights pretty robust and loads of light without the halogen blindness £20 usually 80 or 90. But lots of crap too
I used to work for them until about 9 years ago. Was good to work for and stores were always brighter and smarter than B and Q. The ranges they sold were the prettier end of DIY and I always rated their kitchens.
I went in a couple of years ago and thought it was very messy. Poor POS and stuff all over the tills. The staff I still knew there said it had gone downhilll as they just wanted to plaster cheap rubbish everywhere and a LOT of the store and area managers had left already. I kinda thought then that they wouldn’t be around much longer - when you’ve worked in retail a long time you can tell as soon as you walk in any shop then they are desperate
I went in a couple of months ago and was shocked to see how bad it was. The kitchen and bathroom displays were either missing or patchy, there were loads of empty shelves and the aisles and seasonal areas were full of baskets of cheap tat with handwritten prices ok. Really really bad - even pound shops do it better than they were doing.
The worst bit was the Christmas display. Shoddy trees in lines not put together properly. No display as such, just line them up and sell em cheap. They were overpriced too.
Sad to see them go but the current owners deserve to lose it as they just didn’t run it properly. They clearly had no idea about retail.