Homebase to live on within former stores reopened under the Range name
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DIY brand will be used online and in some departments of new superstores opened from January. Homebase is to live on as a brand online and within up to 70 former stores reopened next year as branches of the Range, its new owner has announced. CDS said it would open the first three converted outlets from the collapsed DIY retailer in January under the Range Superstores name, and then 10 a month from February.
The group, which is based in Plymouth, said each would have a Homebase-branded garden centre section, and some would also have kitchen departments badged with the DIY brand. The privately owned business founded by the former market trader Chris Dawson in 1989, which operates about 220 stores in the UK and Ireland under the Range and Wilko banners, snapped up 70 of Homebase’s outlets and the rights to the brand after the DIY chain fell into administration last month.
The Homebase website is currently trading under administrators from Teneo but will be handed over to CDS in early 2025. Administrators are also seeking buyers for 49 Homebase stores not taken on by CDS, and they will trade under the DIY brand for the short-term until they find new owners.
CDS said it was investing in a new website that would be relaunched nationwide early next year. The first three Range Superstores will open on 17 January in Pollokshaws, Glasgow; Christchurch, Bournemouth; and Kings Heath, Birmingham. Alex Simpkin, the chief executive of CDS, said: “We’re fully committed to retaining the best of Homebase’s heritage while introducing the broader product range and value that customers expect from us as the Range.
