Wesfarmers has revealed a £28 million loss in the UK as it continues its Homebase rebranding operation.
The Homebase parent company attributed the hefty loss in its half yearly report to a largescale restructure and price cut programme.
In the six months to the end of December, like-for-like transactions were up 9.1 per cent and UK revenues hit £612 million.
Despite this it racked up a £13 million restructuring bill, and sustained further “significant” losses due to its Always Low Prices promotion, alongside clearance sales of lines being removed in the restructure.
READ MORE: Bunnings improves employees’ contracts since taking over Homebase
The Australian-based company purchased Homebase last year in a £340 million deal.
The 258-store Homebase estate has already begun the rebranding and re-fitting process into Bunnings, seeing the first Bunnings store open in St Albans recently.
Wesfarmers, who are worth around £27 billion, purchased Homebase from Home Retail Group before it was taken over by Sainsbury‘s in a landmark deal.
It plans to have transformed all Homebase stores within five years, and the UK could see another 10 stores by the end of the year.
“It’s early days yet for Bunnings in the UK with Homebase, but trading performance seems to have worsened as the business gets ‘back to basics’,” independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said.
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