UK retailer Homebase falls into administration with 2,000 jobs at risk

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) – Up to 2,000 jobs are at risk after British home improvement retailer Homebase called in administrators who immediately sold up to 70 stores, the brand and its intellectual property to The Range owner CDS in a so-called prepack deal.

Administrator Teneo Financial Advisory Limited said on Wednesday the sale was expected to secure the jobs of about 1,600 of Homebase’s total workforce of 3,600 across its head office and stores.

Homebase had been owned by Hilco since 2018 when it paid a nominal 1 pound to Australia’s Wesfarmers for the then 255-store chain. Wesfarmers had a disastrous two-year tenure, having paid 340 million pounds ($432 million) for the business.

Teneo said Homebase had recently completed the sale of 11 stores to Sainsbury’s and had agreed to sell a further three to the supermarket group.

It said the remaining 49 stores would continue to trade while it held talks with interested parties, there would be no immediate redundancies and customer orders would be fulfilled “as far as possible”.

Homebase CEO Damian McGloughlin said his company had suffered a decline in consumer confidence and spending since the COVID pandemic and that this had been exacerbated by the impact of persistent high inflation, global supply chain issues and unseasonable weather.

“We have taken many and wide-ranging actions to improve trading performance, including restructuring the business and seeking fresh investment. These efforts have not been successful and today we have made the difficult decision to appoint administrators,” he said.

Homebase competes with London-listed Kingfisher, which owns B&Q and Screwfix, and Wickes.

Homebase’s administration is Britain’s biggest retail failure since cosmetics firm the Body Shop collapsed in February.

Last year homewares and household goods discount retailer Wilko shut down, with the loss of over 9,000 jobs, though some of its 400 stores were acquired by other retailers.

($1 = 0.7862 pounds)