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In September 2000, Wickes was purchased by Focus Group, with backing from Duke Street Capital. This deal eventually made Focus Group the UK's second largest home improvement retailer, behind B&Q. [7] 36 Focus stores were rebranded to Focus DIY, growing Wickes from 131 stores in October 2000 to 172 in March 2004. [8]
Focus DIY, Keighley, West Yorkshire (2010) Cerberus Capital purchased Focus DIY for £1 in June 2007, and appointed Bill Grimsey, formerly CEO of Wickes, as CEO. [9] In an attempt to tackle the financial problems the owners restructured the business, and injected fresh capital in the form of £200 million via loans by the owners Cerberus Capital, Bank of Scotland and GMAC.
The jobbing builder market was lost to the new UK Wickes chain. Following poor trading, WH Smith extricated itself from the merger and then Boots sold Do It All to Focus DIY in 1998. The Focus group retained some of the Payless own-brand ranges and successfully bought up Wickes - later selling them at a substantial profit to Travis Perkins. [3]
Great Mills had almost 100 stores in the UK at the time of the proposed sale In 2011, Focus DIY entered administration. [11] Some of the ex-Great Mills were sold off to other retailers, while others were left empty. The original Great Mill flagship store in Paulton stood empty until 2015, when it became an outlet for Wickes. [12]
By 2002 the chain had grown to over 450 stores following several buyouts including the Wickes DIY chain. Archer and his partners received over £650 million from the sale of Wickes in 2005. When his core Focus business was in financial difficulty, US private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management bought Focus for £1 in June 2007. Cerberus ...
B&Q Limited (short for Block & Quayle after the company's two founders) is a British multinational DIY and home improvement retailing company, with headquarters in Eastleigh, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Kingfisher plc .