The British high street has taken a significant blow, with various retailers shutting a number of their stores. Homebase is the latest to announce more closures for multiple branches. The closures come after the home and garden company already closed eight of its stores earlier this month. In November, Homebase fell into administration but was partially saved by Chris Dawson, owner of CDS Superstore, which manages The Range and Wilko.
According to CDS, “up to” 70 Homebase stores were saved as well as 1,600 jobs. Yet, 74 branches and around 2,000 employees were still at risk. A week later, Teneo, the administrators for Homebase, placed the remaining stores up for sale. Several companies purchased some of the stores, with eight to be bought by B&Q and five by Wickes.
However, three branches part of CDS’s rescue deal of 70 stores are set to close this month. Homebase stores in St Albans, Stockport and Ewell are also closing their doors but have a chance of reopening under a different retailer’s name.
Along with the three, there are seven other stores that are not up for sale and will close permanently. There are no confirmed closure dates for the 10 unlucky branches. Teneo said the staff at the affected branches have all been informed of the closures this month and have been told their last date of employment.
CDS Superstores, which has taken on the Homebase brand, has also relaunched its website, offering thousands of products for sale. It is currently in the process of re-purposing and opening some of the previous Homebase stores under its The Range brand, with the new stores featuring spaces such as “Garden Centres by Homebase” and “Kitchens by Homebase”.
The company also announced it aims to open three new stores per week in the coming months and launch in at least 50 locations by the end of April.
Stores located in Ruslip, Maidenhead, Harrogate, Dublin Nutgrove, and Dublin Santry are set to reopen under The Range names this month.
Full list of branches closing by the end of the month:
- St Albans, Hatfield
- Bredbury, Stockport
- Ewell
- Heath Retail Park, Honiton
- Catford, London
- Milton Keynes
- Orpington
- Hamilton, Scotland
- Omagh, Northern Ireland
- Londonderry, Northern Ireland
