Homebase owner Wesfarmers has snapped up a former B&Q store in Folkestone, which it plans to convert into its fifth UK Bunnings Warehouse.
This marks a change in tack for the Australian retailer, which commenced its assault on the UK DIY scene by converting some of the 265 Homebase stores it acquired last year.
The business’s first two UK Bunnings stores were converted from two Homebase units in St Albans.
Its next two stores, due to open in Hemel Hempstead and Milton Keynes by June, are also transformations of former Homebase sites.
However, for its fifth UK store, the DIY giant will shutter the Homebase in Folkestone in July and move to a new site, previously occupied by its biggest UK rival B&Q.
The retailer said the former B&Q plot is much larger than the Homebase – 75,000 sq ft compared with 45,000 sq ft – and has a much bigger garden-centre space.
The store is expected to open as a Bunnings Warehouse in July, with an additional 40 full- and part-time employees.
A Homebase Bunnings spokesperson said: “This is an exciting development for us as our pilot programme builds momentum, extending the Bunnings Warehouse offer to a new area of the UK.”
Network shake-up
The boss of Bunnings’ British operations PJ Davis previously alluded to potential disposals and acquisitions – relocating when it makes sense to do so.
He told Retail Week: “We’re always looking at our network plans.
“As we’ve always said, we’ll see a combination of new openings and replacement stores and obviously when we’re replacing stores we’ll close old ones.
“The network development plans are dynamic and we want the right stores in the right locations for our customers long-term.”
Sources close to the situation said Bunnings had instructed property consultants Wilkinson Williams and CWM Out of Town to help it review the estate it inherited from Homebase.
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