High Street chain collapse sweepstake

[Martin Phillp]

The Original Factory Shop has been acquired by Modella Capital, making it a parent company to Hobbycraft.

[WillPS]

The Original Factory Shop has been acquired by Modella Capital, making it a parent company to Hobbycraft.

Sister company, surely?

[Alexia]

Got a gut feeling after visiting Saino's earlier that it's not long for this world in its present form.

[GeekyJames]

Saino's?!

[WillPS]

Got a gut feeling after visiting Saino's earlier that it's not long for this world in its present form.

Fear not.

[Zimba]

I might be in the minority here but is it just me that doesn't understand why The Range is opening Homebase Garden Centre's. There's lot of things I think about Homebase, mostly expensive stuff for people who don't do DIY but definitely not it's gardening side.

Unless you're thinking about overpriced plants which were dead.

It's even more bizarre since Wilko's gardening range was one of it's strong points and one bit that people actually miss. No-one cares about Homebase, let's be honest and if you were going to do something surely it would be the DIY side which is just a muddled mess at The Range right now.

[Martin Phillp]

I might be in the minority here but is it just me that doesn't understand why The Range is opening Homebase Garden Centre's. There's lot of things I think about Homebase, mostly expensive stuff for people who don't do DIY but definitely not it's gardening side.

Unless you're thinking about overpriced plants which were dead.

It's even more bizarre since Wilko's gardening range was one of it's strong points and one bit that people actually miss. No-one cares about Homebase, let's be honest and if you were going to do something surely it would be the DIY side which is just a muddled mess at The Range right now.

It seems that because they own the Homebase brand, they'd rather have some continuity of brands at these new Range conversions rather than go full on which also allows them to promote the Homebase website which is what the brand is being largely used for under CDS. I wouldn't be surprised if later they change their strategy and go for Wilko as their garden centre brand as they already do for household goods.

Slight OT, but CDS have relaunched the Wilko website at the end of February.

[BBC TV Centre]

Is there any brand equity in Homebase? For me it always reminds me of what was a good DIY chain in the 90s ruined by buyouts and private equity. And towards the end of its days was rather overpriced and didn't know what it was doing.

[WillPS]

Is there any brand equity in Homebase? For me it always reminds me of what was a good DIY chain in the 90s ruined by buyouts and private equity. And towards the end of its days was rather overpriced and didn't know what it was doing.

I think most of the 'ruin' was done by HRG rather than private equity. A decade of almost zero investment.

[Hervert]

Is there any brand equity in Homebase? For me it always reminds me of what was a good DIY chain in the 90s ruined by buyouts and private equity. And towards the end of its days was rather overpriced and didn't know what it was doing.

In recent years they have clearly failed to maintain their brand position and have clearly lost their identity

[Martin Phillp]

PepCo are considering selling Poundland. This doesn't affect Dealz in Ireland.

Again they're blaming the NI increases in April which will "add further pressure" to the UK business.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg8jqw3wx9o