Sainsbury’s-owned furniture brand Habitat is due for a reset over the coming months, including the closure of its iconic Tottenham Court Road store.

The store, which was opened by the late Sir Terence Conran in 1966, will close early next year along with its Finchley Road store as Sainsbury’s carries out a huge brand overhaul.

Habitat is set to become Sainsbury’s main home and furniture brand, replacing all products currently in stores.

It is currently trialling a small collection, with a further rollout planned for spring 2021 and the full range released by the end of the year.

The new ranges will be available in Sainsbury’s and Argos stores, as well as online on Argos’ and Habitat’s websites.

The retailer is planning to create some furniture display areas in its bigger Sainsbury’s stores.

To replace the Tottenham Court Road store, Habitat Westfield, Brighton and Leeds will relaunch as showrooms in Spring 2021. 

Like other retailers, Habitat is trialling a video consultation service where customers can be connected with experts in-store to shop remotely.

Sainsbury’s plans to broaden the price range of its Habitat products to make it more accessible, with prices starting as low as £1.50 for a mug.

Sainsbury’s trading director for clothing, home and furniture Rebecca Hitchings told Retail Week: ”We’re really thinking about how we bring the iconic homeware brand to life. We’re really talking about how we bring more Habitat products to more customers in more places. 

“We’ve got really big market share across home and furniture in Sainsbury’s so we will just bring it all under the Habitat brand. Obviously, it’s quite an iconic brand – it’s got that je ne sais quoi and we want to keep that. Whenever I talk to friends, colleagues, customers, normally everyone has a piece of Habitat in their home or can remember a shopping experience there so we really want to capture it, really keep that design-led authority, but make it more accessible.”

Sainsbury’s and Argos’ home and furniture business is worth £1.4bn with Habitat making up approximately £40m of that. 

The retailer has also grown its market share exponentially to 7.8%, overtaking market leaders Dunelm in the second quarter.

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