A history of Homebase house and garden centres, from 1979 to 2001
In the Sainsbury Archive not quite everything we have in the collection is about the famous chain of Sainsbury’s stores in the UK. We’ve also got many items relating to various past subsidiaries of the company. These included two US supermarket chains (Shaw’s and Giant), farms in Scotland, a food manufacturing company (Haverhill Meat Products), and two DIY and garden retailers.
These companies have since been sold off to become part of other businesses but we hold the archives for the time when they were a part of the Sainsbury’s group. Here we look at the story of one of these former subsidiaries – Homebase.
The foundation of Homebase
Homebase was established as part of a strategy of diversification in the Sainsbury’s business. The company considered various options – one suggestion was even to start a fast-food chain. However they later came to the decision to set up a DIY chain, and also to acquire an overseas food retail chain.
Sainsbury’s went into partnership with the Belgian retail group GB-Inno-BM to establish this chain in October 1979 with Sainsbury’s taking a 75% shareholding and GB-Inno-BM taking 25%. GB-Inno-BM owned the Brico chain of DIY stores in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and the USA. Sainsbury’s chairman Sir John (later Lord) Sainsbury was impressed on a visit to Belgium with the presentation and quality of the Brico stores, and it was decided to model the new chain on these stores.
The first Homebase stores
The Homebase brand was developed and they opened the first store in Purley Way, Croydon in April 1981. The new store also became the head office of the company (until 1984, when it moved to Wallington). It was very successful with over 60,000 customers in the first two weeks. On the first Saturday the store had to be temporarily closed by the police as the crowds visiting had caused a traffic jam!
The store included a small demonstration house showing some of the materials and techniques used in house construction and decoration. There was also a Laura Ashley fabrics and wallpaper shop within the store - as part of a deal with Laura Ashley these were included in all Homebase stores.
The second store was opened in Leeds in October 1981 as part of a Sainsbury’s development including a Sainsbury’s supermarket and a Homebase store. It was intended that where possible Homebase stores would be next to a Sainsbury’s store like in Leeds. This enabled the new business to benefit from the footfall from the supermarket and they could share facilities like car parking.
There was a close relationship between the Sainsbury's and Homebase businesses, with staff often transferring between the two companies and shared advertising promotions including the promotion of Homebase in Sainsbury's stores.
Most of the senior executives were from Sainsbury's including the first chairman Gurth Hoyer Millar. For much of the time under Sainsbury's ownership the company was managed by Dino Adriano. He joined Sainsbury's back in 1964 and became Homebase general manager in 1981. After going back to Sainsbury's for a while as an area director (from 1986 to 1989), he returned to Homebase as managing director in 1989, becoming chairman in 1991. He went on to lead Sainsbury's as Group Chief Executive from 1997 to 2000.
Sainsbury's methods, ideas and practices were adapted to the new business - they were keen, for example, to develop a high quality own-brand range of products. As Adriano explained "There was no point in re-inventing the wheel. We were able to apply [Sainsbury's] standards to Homebase, translating appropriate procedures. The most significant input was the people who came over. They brought experience, expertise and method".
'There's no place like Homebase'
The new stores were intended to be different from the established DIY chains - a brochure for the first store called it 'a completely new concept in house and garden improvement centres'. They were intended to be complete 'home and garden centre' stores which were more customer friendly, provided high quality information and advice, and would appeal more to women than competitor stores. Staff were trained to provide expert advice and a series of free 'project planner' leaflets providing advice on DIY and gardening projects were among the ways the company tried to help shoppers regardless of whether they were an experienced DIY-er or a beginner. The stores were well laid-out and signposted with signs featuring a pictogram man who also appeared on the company's advertising.
Homebase also developed a number of innovations including the introduction of centralised distribution where goods would be sent out from Homebase's depot to individual stores rather than being delivered directly from the supplier to the store. This had a number of benefits including that store staff didn't need to spend lots of time dealing with the checking and unloading of stock from hundreds of suppliers. They also didn't need to keep excessive stocks of products at the store. While centralised distribution was already well established in Sainsbury's supermarkets, none of the major DIY retailers in the UK had introduced such a system and so Homebase was the first when it opened its depot in Northampton in 1988. Today, all the main DIY retailers use centralised distribution.
They were also one of the first retailers in the UK (of any kind) to introduce a loyalty card, with their Spend & Save card introduced in 1991. This enabled Homebase customers to gain vouchers which they could spend at Sainsbury's, Savacentre and Homebase itself.
The growth of Homebase
The company steadily grew and in 1989 it opened its 50th store (Norwich). It was now the fourth largest DIY retailer by sales, though it was some way behind the top three - B&Q, Texas Homecare and Do-It-All.
By 1995, Homebase had 82 stores. However that year Sainsbury’s acquired the UK’s second largest DIY retailer, Texas Homecare, with 241 stores. From 1996 to 1999 Texas stores were converted to the Homebase format and brand, tripling the business in size and expanding the trading area to cover the whole country. The conversion of the stores to Homebase was highly successful and resulted in large sales figure increases in the ex-Texas stores.
In 1996, Sainsbury's acquired GB-Inno-BM's minority stake in Homebase. This made Sainsbury's the sole owner of the business.
Homebase sold
In 2001 Sainsbury’s decided to sell Homebase to focus on their main supermarket business, although a 17.3% minority stake was retained until 2002. The chain still continues today under new ownership.
The archive collection
The Sainsbury Archive has a variety of documents and images relating to the history of Homebase during the time it was owned by Sainsbury's from 1979 to 2001. A few items relating to Homebase have been digitised and can be found here on our online catalogue.
These include:
- Photographs of Homebase store exteriors and interiors
- Information about Homebase stores
- Advertising including press, radio, customer leaflets and magazines
- Videos – staff, advertising and public relations
- Staff newsletters and information
- Board minutes
- Public relations material
- Some Homebase own-brand packaging
- Publications sold to customers, such as books on DIY projects
Further reading and sources
‘Sainsbury’s: The Record Years’ by Giles Emerson
'The Best Butter in the World: A History of Sainsbury's' by Bridget Williams
JS Journal (Sainsbury's staff magazine), including January-February 1995; February 1981; March 1981; November 1988 issues
Comments
Comments (0)