Essential reading for retailers and suppliers in the home improvement market

News Archive August 2017

Wilko to open new South Yorkshire stores 30 August 2017

Value home and garden retailer, Wilko, has announced the opening of two new stores in the South Yorkshire region.Its new Cortonwood Shopping Park store, near Barnsley, will open on Wednesday 6 September at 9am. The retailer is set to give away £20 ...


Sainsbury’s launches new Argos Click & Collect service in convenience stores 30 August 2017

Sainsbury’s has announced that it is launching an Argos Click & Collect service in 100 Sainsbury’s Local convenience stores nationwide. The initiative is due to be complete by the end of 2017. It will enable customers to order Argos products and ...


Home Hardware holds Meet the Buyer day 30 August 2017

BHETA and GIMA have confirmed a Meet the Buyer event on Tuesday, 17 October at a hotel in or near to Barnstaple with Home Hardware South West.Home Hardware has over 450 retail members including independent hardware retailers, homewares and cook ...


Housewares ‘Oscars’ reflects abundance of talent 30 August 2017

With just over a month until this year’s Excellence in Housewares Awards, which is co-hosted by Progressive Housewares and bira, tensions are building to see who will be named as bira-Cookshop and Housewares Retailer of the Year.In the running for ...


Dunelm chief executive moves on 30 August 2017

Dunelm Group plc’s chief executive John Browett is stepping down for personal reasons with immediate effect."We will immediately start a search for John's replacement and in the meantime I will provide interim executive leadership supported by our ...


TK Maxx to open in Leamington 29 August 2017

Hot on the heels of opening its new store at Loughton last week, TK Maxx is opening one at Leamington Shopping Park, known formerly as The Shires, creating up to 42 new jobs. TK Maxx offers big labels and designer fashion and homeware items at up to ...


Retail parks lead in a slow July 25 August 2017

Covering the four weeks from 2 to 29 July, 2017, footfall in July fell -1.1% against the previous year while high streets (-2.1%) and shopping centres (-1.3%) showed a decline, and retail parks (1.7%) saw growth. It was the fourth consecutive month ...


New Café Bar to open at Squire’s in Shepperton 25 August 2017

Squire’s Garden Centre in Shepperton has unveiled plans to open a new Café Bar in early October.It will have new Raffles style décor, flooring, seating and lighting. There will be distinct seating areas to choose from including the main Café Bar, a ...


New Bunnings Warehouse to create 25 jobs in Harlow, Essex 25 August 2017

Home improvement and garden retailer, Bunnings Warehouse, has announced plans to open a new store in Harlow later this year, creating more than 25 new full and part-time jobs.Bunnings, retailer of home improvement and outdoor living products in ...


Online sales increase against some poor in-store results 25 August 2017

Recent figures have revealed that bad weather and continued economy uncertainty has hit summer sales. Not only this, but shoppers have been heading online to seek out better discounts and deals.The IMRG Capgemini Sales Index for August shows that UK ...


Trago Mills opens £3.5 million Build Centre 24 August 2017

The eagerly-awaited new £3.5m ‘Build Centre’ opened at Trago’s landmark Newton Abbot site last month.The Trago Build Centre is a purpose-built stand-alone retail facility, adjacent to the main store and comprises 2,088 square meters (22,475 square ...


Asda parent introduces voice-shopping technology 23 August 2017

US retailer Walmart is teaming up with Google to enter the voice-shopping market, which is currently dominated by pure-play giant Amazon. From September, consumers in the US will be able to buy Walmart products using a voice-activated Google ...


Petersham Nurseries opens second site in Covent Garden 22 August 2017

Petersham Nurseries has opened its doors on King Street in Covent Garden, bringing nature and elegance to the heart of London with a lifestyle, home and garden shop, delicatessen, wine cellar and florist; two restaurants and a bar will follow....


Akzo works to ‘normalise’ its relationship with shareholders 22 August 2017

Akzo works to ‘normalise’ its relationship with shareholders. Dulux parent, Akzo Nobel announced it has had a recent “constructive dialogue” with affiliates of Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited (collectively "Elliott") and reached an agreement with the ...


Eight of top 10 top garden centres say no to bee-harming pesticides 22 August 2017

Eight of the top 10 leading garden retailers and garden centres don’t want the flowering plants they sell to be grown with bee-harming neonicotinoid pesticides and have told suppliers not to use them, a Friends of the Earth survey reveals today. ...


Glee boasts “strongest pet contingent for many years” 21 August 2017

Garden retailers and pet buyers will be spoilt for choice, says the show’s organisers, with a host of UK and international exhibitors lined up for Glee 2017, along with a newly-launched Buyer Connect event and news that the Petquip Business Village ...


Travis Perkins uses Google Cloud to improve customer experience 21 August 2017

Travis Perkins, building materials supplier to construction and home improvement supply stores such as Wickes and Benchmarx, is utilising Talend and Google Cloud Platform to increase data quality, consistency and business agility across multiple ...


Johnson’s Ironmongers closes 17 August 2017

Johnson’s Ironmongers in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has closed down. Philip Johnson, who was the fourth generation of the Johnson family to run the shop, had owned the business since 1952, but died in January at the age of 88, and the family decided ...


Screwfix powers ahead in Q2, while B&Q sales hit by seasonal losses 17 August 2017

Kingfisher’s results for the second quarter revealed like-for-like sales up 10.8% at Screwfix, boosted by new stores and digital capabilities, while B&Q revenues were impacted by store closures and a dip in seasonal sales.Total sales for ...


‘Repositioning of business’ hits Bunnings pre-tax profits 17 August 2017

Bunnings reported a £54 million ($89 million) loss before interest and tax for its first full financial year of trading its UK and Ireland business since the acquisition of Homebase, as the retailer counts the cost of new store openings and walking ...


Ideabright Ltd in administration 16 August 2017

Hardware retailer and parent company of Dibranto, Posh Rosh, and Clean Up brands has appointed administrators this week after struggling with “very tough trading”, the company says.Ideabright, which has its head office in Chessington Surrey, ...


Tool Shop expands with two new locations 14 August 2017

Independent hardware chain secures two new London units – in Camden and Islington – and reveals plans to grow the business further with new acquisitions in coming months.The Tool Shop Group today confirmed that it was adding two further branches to ...


Screwfix to open fourth Glasgow store 14 August 2017

Screwfix is set to open its fourth store in Glasgow on Thursday, 24 August at Anniesland Business Park, creating 14 new jobs in the area.“We’ve created 14 new jobs and employed people from around the Glasgow area,” said store manager Andrew Doak. “...


Axe swings at Wilko 14 August 2017

Wilko has started redundancy consultations with nearly 4,000 staff members as it reorganises its business across its more than 400 stores in the UK.Around 1,000 senior supervisory roles and a "significant amount" of customer service posts will be ...


Bunnings heads to Weston-super-Mare for ninth location 11 August 2017

Bunnings confirms it will open its ninth Warehouse store in Worle later this year, taking over the site of the Homebase on Bristol Road. The new store is approximately 76,000sq ft and will employ an additional 20 full and part-time team members, ...


Plant disease poses threat to UK horticulture industry 11 August 2017

One of the most harmful bacterial plant diseases in the world, Xylella fastidiosa could pose a huge risk to the UK industry and the Horticultural Trades Association is warning that businesses must make sure they only buy host plants from trusted ...


B&M opens new store with garden centre in Doncaster   11 August 2017

The latest new B&M Home store opened in Thorne this week, complete with a large 5,842sq ft garden centre.It's the latest addition to the stores in the South Yorkshire region and has created more than 50 jobs. The new Home store, managed by Nick ...


High percentage of consumers make unplanned purchases at discount stores 10 August 2017

In a recent survey, 75% of consumers said they had made an unexpected impulse purchase including tools and kitchen products - when shopping at a discount retailer.  Retail consultancy Newton, which published the research conducted across 2,000 UK ...


Homewares sales make a comeback in July 10 August 2017

While the non-food category saw declines during the four-week period, homeware retailers were a “success story”, says the British Retail Consortium in its latest retail sales monitor. Figures reported in the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor for the four ...


Physical stores drive online growth 9 August 2017

New research revealing a symbiotic relationship between a brand’s physical stores and its ecommerce platform has been published by British Land.Using data from Connexity Hitwise, the research, shows that when a new store opens, traffic to the ...


Travis Perkins wins military recruitment award 9 August 2017

Travis Perkins has been recognised for their work supporting the Armed Forces with a Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Silver award. The accolade is awarded to companies that are making a demonstrable effort to support, recruit and develop ...


DFS acquires Sofology 7 August 2017

Furniture retailer DFS has exchanged contracts to acquire Sofology for an initial enterprise value of £25m on a debt-free, cash-free basis payable upon completion. In addition, further payments could be made approximately 12 months following ...


Further decline in consumer spend on household goods 7 August 2017

Visa's UK CSI data signalled a further decline in household expenditure at the start of the third quarter. Compared to the same month a year ago, spending fell -0.8% in July which was slightly faster than seen in June (-0.2%). Moreover, spending has ...


Tesco scraps 5p carrier bags in favour of ‘Bag for Life’ 7 August 2017

Tesco has today announced that from August 28, it will no longer make single-use carrier bags available to customers, replacing them instead with a new 10p ‘Bag for Life’ made from 94% recycled plastic. The announcement follows a successful 10-week ...


Australian housewares chain sets its sights on UK 7 August 2017

Australian housewares chain House, which is owned by Global Retail Brands, is preparing to move into the UK market next year. Global Retail Brands aims to open its first tranche of House stores by April 2018, with a total of 75 stores planned within ...


Further disruption to Argos distribution network, as workers gear up to strike 4 August 2017

Argos customers could see a delay of three weeks for their orders, as more than 1,000 warehouse staff get set to strike over an ongoing redundancy payments row. The UK catalogue retailer is faced with three weeks of strikes across its distribution ...


B&M targets convenience sector with acquisition 3 August 2017

B&M has announced a takeover of Heron Foods, a discount convenience retailer operating predominantly in the North of England with 251 storesThe deal was done by B&M’s subsidiary, EV Retail Limited, for £152 million, including the debt ...


ASA agrees Oak Furnitureland’s claims are solid 2 August 2017

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revoked its decision to ban Oak Furnitureland from using its ‘100% solid hardwood’ and ‘no veneer in ’ere’ phrasing in advertising.The decision comes after a 12-month independent review of the case ...


Travis Perkins reports revenue up, profits down 2 August 2017

Travis Perkins has reported a rise in revenue but reduced profits for the first half of its financial year.The company said its revenue grew by 3.5%to £3.2bn for the six months to June 30 while pre-tax profits fell by 4.5% to £168m. Adjusted ...


John Lewis again reports increase in home sales 1 August 2017

John Lewis has reported home sales were up 7.7% for week ending July 29, 2017 on the same week last year. The company said customers were investing in their bedrooms with sales in bed linen up 19.2% and beds and bedroom up 17.5%, driven by the last ...


Poundland launches its first summer sale 1 August 2017

Poundland has launched its first summer sale, cutting the price of thousands of product lines to 50p.At the start of the year the company said said it would continue to sell the majority of items at a £1 but would introduce added value with simple ...


Retailers must embrace contactless payment, according to Barclaycard study 1 August 2017

The continued surge of ‘touch and go’ payments is set to save UK shoppers 141 million hours, worth almost a billion pounds in time, by 2021 according to a new study from Barclaycard.Ahead of the 10th anniversary of contactless payments next month, ...


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