Home Retail Group plc was a home and general merchandise retailer based in the United Kingdom. It was the parent company of Argos and Habitat, and once owned the

do it yourself "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and se ...

chain

Homebase Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre with stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. Founded by Sainsbury's and GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the company was owned by Home Retail Group from October 2006, un ...

before selling it to the Australian retailer Wesfarmers in February 2016. Home Retail Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange, until it was acquired by the British supermarket company Sainsbury's for £1.4 billion on 2 September 2016.

History

GUS plc acquired Argos in April 1998, and combined it with its mail order business to form Argos Retail Group (ARG) in June 2000. It went on to acquire

for £900 million in November 2002, bringing it into ARG. In June 2005, GUS bought thirty three stores of

Index Index (or its plural form indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on a Halo megastru ...

, which were subsequently converted to the format of Argos. ARG was renamed Home Retail Group, upon its demerger in July 2006 from GUS. Shares in Home Retail Group were traded on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

as from 11 October 2006. In October 2007, Home Retail Group bought twenty seven stores from

Focus DIY Focus DIY was a privately owned chain of DIY stores in the United Kingdom. It served the consumer DIY market sector, and most stores had some form of garden centre. At its peak in 2002, it was the second-largest DIY retailer in the United K ...

, and converted them to the format of Homebase. In June 2011, the group bought the exclusive rights to the brand of Habitat, its brand designs and intellectual property in the United Kingdom and Ireland, along with three stores in London and its website. In November 2015, the group rejected a £1 billion takeover proposal from the supermarket company

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

, which it revealed on 5 January 2016. On 18 January 2016, it was confirmed that Homebase would be sold to the Australian retailer

Wesfarmers Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products. With revenue o ...

for £340 million, subject to shareholder approval. The sale was completed on 27 February 2016. Sainsbury's submitted a revised offer of £1.3 billion on 2 February 2016, with a deadline of 23 February to make a firm bid.

Steinhoff International Steinhoff International is a multinational holding company that is dual listed in Germany and South Africa. Its holdings are in the retail sector, primarily in furniture and household goods, and include a controlling stake in South Africa's ...

submitted a rival bid of £1.4 billion on 19 February. Steinhoff abandoned its bid on 18 March 2016, while Sainsbury's submitted a formal bid of £1.4 billion. On 1 April 2016, the company agreed to a takeover offer from Sainsbury's. The deal was completed on 2 September 2016.

Operations

Home Retail Group's businesses Argos and

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

operated in over eight hundred stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. The group had a 49% holding in a multi-channel general merchandise retail business in China, called HH Retail Limited, with Haier Group, one of the world's leading home appliance manufacturers, holding the remaining 51%. The group sold its 33% shareholding in Ogalas Limited (which trades as 'home store + more' in the Republic of Ireland) on 8 March 2013. Home Retail Group owned a number of well known brands, including

Alba ''Alba'' ( , ) is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is also, in English language historiography, used to refer to the polity of Picts and Scots united in the ninth century as the Kingdom of Alba, until it developed into the Kin ...

, Bush, Chad Valley,

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, th ...

Hygena Hygena is a dormant brand of fitted kitchen and furniture in the United Kingdom. Started in Liverpool in 1925 to make Hoosier cabinets, it was bought by new investors in 1938, who after the war built modular kitchens for the new British pos ...

, Schreiber, Challenge, Sovereign, Cookworks and Heart of House.

Financial performance

All figures below are for the Group's financial years, which ran for fifty two or fifty three week periods to end of February/beginning of March. Under the terms of the agreement with Sainsbury's to acquire Home Retail Group, for each Home Retail Group share, shareholders received 0.321 new Sainsbury’s shares and 55p per share. As a result of the sale of Homebase, they also received 25p per share, plus the year's dividend as a final dividend payment.

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2016 mergers and acquisitions British companies established in 2000 Companies based in Milton Keynes Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 2000 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange