Metropol

Homebase has been sold to Wesfarmers for £340m. All stores will rebrand to Bunnings.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35340384

No idea what will happen to the Argos concessions in existing Homebase stores.

Well… that was fast. A bit of a shame if the concessions go since the Argos in my local Homebase has been very handy.

Maybe they'll insist on them staying, it's a way of making money even after they've sold off the company I guess. Something that quite often happens!

Philip wrote:Well… that was fast. A bit of a shame if the concessions go since the Argos in my local Homebase has been very handy.

I popped into my local Argos concession in Homebase for the first time today. Very intimate and excellent service, unlike the traditional stores.

The Homebase at Straiton, Edinburgh closed last year and a "Homebase Decorating Centre" opened within Argos as a replacement.

The staff at Homebase said a new, smaller store would open in the empty unit next to Argos. Will be interesting to see what happens now to the existing set up and whether the new store materialises.

Anyone know of other Homebase Decorating Centre's within Argos stores?

Serco and Abellio give up the Northern Rail franchise to Arriva Rail North on April Fool's Day. However the branding will remain as Northern and purple, albeit with a new logo.

Will they go round changing all the station signs they've replaced with ones in Northern's corporate style over the past decade? They'd have been better off just leaving them as the old British Rail style.

james2001 wrote:Will they go round changing all the station signs they've replaced with ones in Northern's corporate style over the past decade? They'd have been better off just leaving them as the old British Rail style.

Probably.

Given Arriva's record in Wales, they'll end up as a mishmash of British Rail Alphabet with purple stickers, Frutiger and Arial.

I'm just gutted at the prospect of losing the "Northern welcomes you to Blackpool North" sign in Comic Sans

all new Phil wrote:I'm just gutted at the prospect of losing the "Northern welcomes you to Blackpool North" sign in Comic Sans

Apply for vintage status.

james2001 wrote:Will they go round changing all the station signs they've replaced with ones in Northern's corporate style over the past decade? They'd have been better off just leaving them as the old British Rail style.

What is notable is that I think Northern replaced the station signs across their entire network, including ones in PTE areas that were generally in PTE house style rather than the TOC, and also stations in rural back waters that still had Regional Railways signs.

Might be why they are keeping purple, as I think many stations in the north west, including Blackpool were painted pink, lampposts etc during First North Western operations, which had to then be repainted purple.