Base collapse puts 2,000 jobs at risk before Christmas: billionaire ‘Del boy’ steps in to save some stores

DIY retailer Homebase collapsed into administration last night, putting 2,000 jobs at risk.

A rescue deal by Chris Dawson, owner of discount store chain The Range, involved just 70 of Homebase’s 130 stores.

The businessman, dubbed the ‘Del Boy billionaire’ when he started running a market stall, said he had saved up to 1,600 jobs.

But that leaves the rest of Homebase’s 3,600 employees anxiously awaiting news about their future just weeks before Christmas.

Homebase had already agreed to sell 11 stores to Sainsbury’s.

Teneo administrators said there would be no immediate redundancies as they tried to find a buyer for the remaining 49 UK stores.

The sites purchased by Dawson will become The Range superstores in the coming months.

“We intend to continue investing in the Homebase brand, with many initiatives in the pipeline,” CDS Superstores, owner of The Range and Wilko, said in a statement last night.

Dawson told the Telegraph: “We are delighted to be able to save so many stores and jobs, and look forward to adding the Homebase brand and its subsidiaries to the expanding Range group of companies.”

Homebase chief executive Damian McGloughlin called the last three years “incredibly challenging” for the home and garden improvement sector, with sales at the retailer falling.

“The decline in consumer confidence and spending following the pandemic has been exacerbated by persistently high inflation, global supply chain issues and unseasonable weather,” he said.

Attempts to get the business back on track failed, leading to a “difficult decision” to appoint administrators, he added.

Cash-strapped consumers have turned their backs on home renovations in recent years.

Susannah Streeter, of broker Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Although interest rates have started to fall, landlords have been very cautious and items with larger notes are difficult to exchange.”

Some consumers appear to have reserved their spending for vacations and experiences rather than big makeovers.

It comes as retailers brace for a bleak 2025, with Labour’s first Budget raking in an extra £2.3bn into the sector through the Chancellor’s National Insurance tax raid alone, and the minimum wage rise adding £367m.

“It may take until 2026 for wages to be affected by the NI increase, but Homebase will have had to factor in higher payroll costs, which may have made it look even less viable,” Streeter said.

Founded by Sainsbury’s and Belgian retailer GB-Inno-BM in 1979, the first Homebase store opened in 1981 in Croydon before demerging in 2000.

The retailer last changed hands in 2018, when its Australian owners Wesfarmers sold it to investment firm Hilco Capital for £1.

Dawson, 72, is understood to have paid £30m for the Homebase website and intellectual property. The total value of the deal has not been disclosed.