A rescue deal has saved the majority of its stores, but 49 stores and 2,000 jobs are still at risk.
Homebase’s current owner, the turnaround specialist Hilco, put the chain back on the market in the spring, six years after buying it for £1 from the Australian retail group Wesfarmers. But Hilco has not managed to find an outright buyer.
Gavin Park, Gavin Maher and Adele Macleod from financial advisory firm Teneo have been appointed as joint administrators of Homebase’s owners, HHGL Limited and Hampden Group Limited.
CDS Superstores, the company behind The Range retail chain and owner of Wilko, has bought 70 Homebase stores. This will save about 1,600 jobs. This is in addition to 11 UK stores sold off to Sainsbury’s – the supermarket has also exchanged on a further three locations.
But the deal leaves 49 shops and thousands of jobs under threat. However, the administrator Teneo has not yet said which stores are under threat.
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Damian McGloughlin, CEO of Homebase, said: “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.”
Gavin Maher, joint administrator at Teneo, said: “The sale to CDS preserves the Homebase brand and secures a significant number of jobs and we hope to complete sales of additional stores over the coming weeks.
“The remainder of the stores will continue to trade whilst buyers are sought and we would encourage any party with an interest to get in touch.”
The administrators said there would not be any immediate redundancies while Homebase’s position was being assessed.
Teneo added that customer orders would be fulfilled “as far as possible” and arrangements would be put in place to allow shoppers to use gift vouchers.
