Homeware giant with 137 branches shuts doors to popular shop after crashing into administration & failing to find buyer
A DIY giant has been forced to close after plunging into administration without a buyer to save it.
The loss has devastated customers who said they will desperately miss the “lovely” staff who worked there.
Homebase in Herne Bay, Kent, closed its doors for the last time on Monday after six of eight branches in the region were put on the market.
Potential buyers had until November 29 to snap up the store after it crashed into administration but unfortunately the unit remained untouched.
In December the home improvement chain popped up “closing down sale” signs in windows across the UK.
Now the Kent branch stands empty and Herne Bay residents will have to look elsewhere for their DIY goods.
Some Homebase branches were recused by CDS Superstores, which owns The Range and Wilko.
It confirmed successfully rescuing 12 store locations including Blyth, Glasgow, and Leicester.
Unfortunately, the Herne Bay store was not one of the lucky ones.
Customers have taken to social media to share their disappointment over losing their beloved Homebase.
One gutted customer said: “Bless the staff, I know a couple of them. It’s been very hard for them.”
Another responded: “I will miss the lovely gardener staff too, always smiling and helpful.”
A third shopper asked: “I shall miss them.”
Another Homebase closure includes Selby, in North Yorkshire, where customers were only given a couple of days to digest the announcement.
Shoppers at the Sudbury branch were also met with bare shelves as it revealed it will also be vacating the premises.
Administrators for the retailer Teneo shared with gutted DIY fans which stores would shut permanently within weeks.
These include:
- Abington
- Alnwick
- Antrim
- Barnstaple
- Basildon Vange
- Belfast
- Branksome
- Cannock
- Chester
- Chichester Discovery Park
- Craigavon
- Daventry
- Derby Kingsway
- Folkestone
- Galwally
- Gateshead
- Glenrothes
- Harlow
- Herne Bay
- Hove
- Inverurie
- Ledbury
- Lewes
- Luton
- Newcastle Under Lyme
- Norwich Hall Road
- Norwich Sprowston
- Nottingham Arnold
- Saffron Walden
- Selly Oak
- Sleaford
- Sudbury
- Waltham Cross
This isn’t the first blow Eddington Business Park, where the store was based, had faced.
Halfords shut down in 2019 and moved five miles down the road to Whitstable.
There were plans for B&M to take over the space but unfortunately the takeover never happened, leaving the unit abandoned in 2021.
Canterbury City Council has given the green light to change the venue’s use to a “discount store” and shoppers are now eager to see what will arrive to take its place.
RETAIL PAIN IN 2025
The British Retail Consortium has predicted that the Treasury's hike to employer NICs will cost the retail sector £2.3billion.
Research by the British Chambers of Commerce shows that more than half of companies plan to raise prices by early April.
A survey of more than 4,800 firms found that 55% expect prices to increase in the next three months, up from 39% in a similar poll conducted in the latter half of 2024.
Three-quarters of companies cited the cost of employing people as their primary financial pressure.
The Centre for Retail Research (CRR) has also warned that around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year.
It comes on the back of a tough 2024 when 13,000 shops closed their doors for good, already a 28% increase on the previous year.
Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the CRR said: “The results for 2024 show that although the outcomes for store closures overall were not as poor as in either 2020 or 2022, they are still disconcerting, with worse set to come in 2025.”
Professor Bamfield has also warned of a bleak outlook for 2025, predicting that as many as 202,000 jobs could be lost in the sector.
“By increasing both the costs of running stores and the costs on each consumer’s household it is highly likely that we will see retail job losses eclipse the height of the pandemic in 2020.”