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, opening on the Purley Way on 3 March 1981.
Homebase tripled in size in 1995 when it bought rival store group Texas Homecare from the Ladbroke Group plc. These stores were rebranded and converted to the Homebase format, beginning with the Longwell Green store in Bristol 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. At the time, the chain had 13% of the UK market, behind B&Q and Focus Do It All.
Homebase was later sold on to GUS plc (formerly Great Universal Stores plc) in November 2002 for £900 million, where it formed part of the Argos Retail Group. On 10 October 2006, GUS completed a demerger between its two businesses Experian 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. 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.
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