Homebase heads for adminstration after £84,000,000 losses with 130 shops at risk of closing
Homebase is set to collapse into administration with 130 shops facing closure, putting countless jobs on the line.
The DIY and garden chain has closed 106 branches since 2018 and reported losses of £84 million last year.
Hilco Capital, which bought the retailer for £1 in 2018, has been trying to balance the books for years. Before being taken over, Homebase had 250 stores and some 11,50 staff.
Losses were blamed on more ‘cautious’ customers amid the cost of living crisis.
In a bid to save some jobs, Sainsbury’s will convert 10 of the Homebase’s 145 stores across the UK and Ireland into supermarkets.
These converted sites are in: Sutton Coldfield, Bromsgrove, Cromer, Derry/Londonderry, Fareham, Inverurie, Lowestoft, Newark, Omagh and Rugby. The deal is expected to create 1,000 jobs.
Full list of Homebase stores at risk of closing:
Drogheda
Dublin
Dublin
Letterkenny
Navan
Portlaoise
Sligo
Waterford
Abingdon
Alnwick
Altrincham
Ashbourne
Barnstaple
Basildon
Basingstoke
Berwick-upon-Tweed
Bicester
Biggleswade
Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham
Bishop Auckland
Bishop’s Stortford
Blandford Forum
Blyth
Bodmin
Bracknell
Bradford
Bristol
Broadstairs
Bury Saint Edmunds
Cannock
Chatham
Cheltenham
Chester
Chichester
Christchurch
Clitheroe
Colchester
Coventry
Daventry
Derby
Derby
East Dereham
Eastbourne
Epsom
Farnham
Felixstowe
Folkestone
Frome
Gateshead
Gloucester
Godalming
Harlow
Harrogate
Herne Bay
Hexham
High Wycombe
Honiton
Horsham
Hove
Hull
Huntingdon
Leamington Spa
Ledbury
Leeds
Leicester
Leighton Buzzard
Lewes
London
London
London
London
Luton
Maidenhead
Maidstone
Market Harborough
Middlesex
Milton Keynes
Morecambe
Newcastle Under Lyme
Newmarket
Newton Abbot
Norwich
Norwich
Nottingham
Oldbury
Orpington
Oxford
Poole
Rayleigh
Reigate
Romford
Ruislip
Saffron Walden
Selby
Sevenoaks
Sheffield
Sheffield
Sittingbourne
Sleaford
St. Albans
Staines
Stamford
Stockport
Stroud
Sudbury, Suffolk
Telford
Tiverton
Truro
Tunbridge Wells
Waltham Cross
Winchester
Wirral
Woking
Wolverhampton
Worcester
Antrim
Bangor
Belfast
Belfast
Cookstown
Craigavon
Dumfries
Dunfermline
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Glenrothes
Hamilton
Oban
Wales
Bridgend
Haverfordwest
The move follows reports that Homebase owners are preparing to sell the company – again – with rival retail The Range eyeing Homebase up.
The Range will bag the branches as part of a ‘pre-pack administration’, when businesses going bust sell assets before appointing administrators.
This could save nearly 75 stores and 1,500 jobs but a further 58 stores and 1,700 jobs are in limbo.
Once the formal process has begun, administrators will seek buyers for the remaining branches.
The Range owner Chris Dawson, branded the ‘Del Boy Billionaire’, told The Telegraph: ‘We are delighted to be able to save so many stores and jobs, and look forward to adding the Homebase brand and subsidiaries to the expanding Range group of companies.’
Between years of austerity, a worldwide pandemic and a cost of living crisis, it hasn’t been the best time recently to be a high-street retailer.
As one Metro.co.uk columnist asked in 2013: ‘Is the death of the high street inevitable?’
According to the Centre for Retail Research, 25 businesses have failed this year, affecting 760 stores and nearly 15,400 employees.
The Post Office only today revealed 115 branches may shutter, joining WHSmith, Wetherspoons and Marks and Spencer in closing stores.
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