Summary
Homebase was once one of our leading home improvement chains so, why did it have to close all of its stores?
The BBC Business journalist Sean Farrington investigates.
Alongside him is the entrepreneur Sam White, who at the end of the show has to reach her own conclusions, based only on what she has heard and her own business acumen.
Homebase was established by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and a Belgian retailer which was already running a DIY business in Europe and America.
The first Homebase store opened in Croydon in 1981 and it had to be temporarily closed by the police after visiting crowds caused a traffic jam.
The chain expanded across the UK and had more than 300 stores.
It went through some highs, and some serious lows, with various owners but what ultimately caused the closure of its shops?
Sean and Sam hear from expert guests including:
- Allison Foster, curator of the Sainsbury Archive, which is based at London Museum Docklands
- Dave Elliott, a former Trading Director then later Commercial Director at Homebase under different owners
- Matt Walton, senior data analyst at GlobalData
While Homebase's standalone stores are toast, the brand continues to trade online under new ownership. Homebase garden centres and products are also being included within branches of The Range.
Produced by Jon Douglas, Toast is a BBC Audio North production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.
You can email the programme at [email protected]
Feel free to suggest topics which could be covered in future episodes.
Transcript
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| 0:37.3 | Hello, you are listening to Toast with me, Sean Farrington. |
| 0:41.3 | I'm a BBC business journalist and Toast is a series from BBC Radio 4 that examines |
| 0:46.6 | amazing business ideas that flourished and then floundered. |
| 0:50.7 | Somehow they ended up Toast. |
| 0:53.3 | And with me, of course course is our resident business expert the |
| 0:56.2 | entrepreneur sam white and as you'll well know the deal is we keep sam in the dark so as we |
| 1:01.7 | discuss the topic we get her genuine immediate reactions to it all then based on what she's |
| 1:07.0 | heard she's got a formulate her thoughts on why this business no longer has any |
| 1:11.4 | stores left in the UK. This time, we're looking at a company that shut up shop pretty recently. |
| 1:19.4 | Sam, hello. How are you? Hey, Sean. I'm good. How are you? I am good. I would put money |
| 1:25.4 | on you being the sort of person who gets an expert in to fix up your house rather than getting your hands dirty yourself. |
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