The Range parent group CDS Superstores is slowly building its portfolio of British household names, after billionaire owner Chris Dawson swooped in to snap up the Homebase brand and up to 70 of its stores out of administration late last year.
The value group, which also owns Wilko, kicked off 2025 by relaunching the DIY and garden retailer’s website and unveiling its first set of new-format superstores.
The nine stores, all refurbishments of existing Homebase units, mark the first tranche of CDS plans to convert 53 locations by the end of May.
Alex Simpkin, CEO of The Range owner CDS Superstores, admits the business has a big task – explains that the business will open “three stores every Friday” between now and the end of May.
This would be a relentless schedule for any store refurbishment programme – and Simpkin says his team is dealing with the added challenge of Homebase administrators at Teneo handing over the keys to each store in phases. This has made planning store refurbishments ahead of time nearly impossible.
He explains this has meant The Range has had to “be a lot more scientific about how we would merchandise” and blend its shop fit team with its merchandising team.
Retail Gazette caught up with Simpkin and the group’s chief digital officer Ben Exall to find out how The Range plans to keep the Homebase brand alive.
What are the plans for the brand?
The Range has wasted no time in integrating Homebase into its portfolio after first circling the brand in July last year.
While Dawson denied reports at the time, he told Retail Gazette in August that expanding into “garden centres will be the next obvious one for us”.
The timings aligned when Homebase’s owner Hilco put the chain up for sale at the tail end of last year as it required a fresh injection of funding.
It seems like DIY and garden chain is set to receive a similar treatment to Wilko, which the group spent most of last year investing in as it relaunched the high street chain’s own-branded products, expanded its online offer and reopened its stores.
Simpkin says the Homebase brand will be “quite prevalent” throughout the wider business.
The Range debuted its new ‘Garden Centres by Homebase’ and ‘Kitchens by Homebase’ concepts earlier this month when it unveiled its first set of new stores in Pollokshaws in Glasgow, Christchurch in Bournemouth, and Kings Heath in Birmingham.
The retailer is also planning on making minor adjustments to its existing store portfolio, including renaming 100 of its garden centres.
“In the business, where we’ve got 34 stores that have got kitchen showrooms which are branded ‘The Range kitchen collection’, we’ve rebranded, so that will be ‘Kitchens by Homebase’, and likewise with the garden centres,” Simpkin explains.
“We’re very much honing in on the horticultural side now, not just at the store level, but within our buying merchandising teams, taking a lot of what was great about Homebase Gardens.”
He adds that part of the plan will also include relaunching some the chain’s branded products, including its Powerbase range.
“As you walk around [the stores], you’ll see some Homebase branded products gradually increase with time,” Simpkin notes.
Homebase 2.0
Homebase’s garden centre expertise may have first attracted The Range’s parent company, but the retail giant is also keen to hold on to the brand’s DIY roots.
Around 20 of the newly converted stores will house Dulux paint mixing stations so “we can really tap into that Homebase shopper”, Exall says.
“We want to obviously make sure that we maintain and service them as well as offer them everything The Range is famous for,” he adds.
Simpkin says that the group hopes to bring in “more premium paint brands” under its Homebase offer too.
He explains the business will still offer “pretty much all” of the categories that the garden and DIY chain had but “maybe not to the same level such as flooring”.
Homebase’s flooring offer, which included a partnership with Tapi Carpets, has been significantly scaled back following the relaunch of its website.
According to Exall, the newly revamped website now lists “double the amount of products” it had previously and offers click and collect to The Range’s 200+ UK footprint.
“We’re really offering more convenience for customers. From a breadth of offer perspective, we’re keeping it very much true to home improvement and garden, because that’s Homebase heritage, but with a lot more choice and offer.”
Exall says that its ‘Kitchens by Homebase’ will be available on the website “as an active, inspirational platform for you to help browse and configure your kitchen” and customers will be able to then go into a store for a kitchen appointment.
Homebase is our ‘priority’
The timing of the Homebase acquisition coincides with the group’s efforts to revive the Wilko brand and Exall admits that the discount chain’s expansion plans have been put on pause while the roll out of Homebase becomes the “priority”.
The business, which had originally targeted 300 Wilko stores over the next five years, opened its seventh in The Pavilions Shopping Centre in Uxbridge last November.
“Wilko is absolutely here to stay, and we’re going to continue to invest in it,” he says.
“We have to be realistic, we’ve had this opportunity and we’ve got to prioritise ‘Garden Centres by Homebase’ so we get as many as these live before our peak trading season in summer.
“We don’t want to take on too much, we want to make sure that we get these right and we’ve got over 50 stores that we’re rolling out, and that’s our priority at the moment.”
Whether the Homebase brand will be introduced into Wilko stores is still “to be confirmed”, Exall notes.
“We absolutely want to maintain some fantastic products sitting under Powerbase, which is predominantly the lawn mower and outside power tool brand, so that will be appearing on all of our websites and all of our stores,” he says.
Just as it has done with the Wilko brand, The Range owner is ensuring Homebase’s 40-year legacy lives on.
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