The New Focus
Cerberus Capital purchased Focus DIY for £1 in June 2007 and appointed Bill Grimsey, formerly CEO of Wickes, as CEO.
In an attempt to tackle the financial problems the owners restructured the business, and injected fresh capital in the form of £200m via loans by the owners Cerberus Capital, Bank of Scotland and GMAC. Costs were slashed and under-performing stores were either closed or sold to other retails including Homebase, Wickes and Sainsbury's. In 2009 a programme of new store formats and further cost cutting was undertaken.
By early 2011, the number of stores had gradually been reduced from 256 in 2007 to 178.
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