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Homebase is a British home improvement retailer and garden centre, with 323 stores across the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The company is part of Home Retail Group, together with Argos. Homebase recorded sales figures of £1.49 billion for the last financial year (2013–2014). Homebase made an operating profit of £18.9 million for the year 2013–2014. ==History== Homebase was founded by the supermarket chain Sainsbury's and Belgian retailer GB-Inno-BM in 1979, as Sainsbury's Homebase. This was to bring a supermarket-style layout to the British Do It Yourself (DIY) market. The first store was in Croydon, opening on 3 March 1981, located on the Purley Way. In May 1995, Homebase tripled in size, when J Sainsbury plc bought rival store group Texas Homecare, from the Ladbroke Group plc. These stores were rebranded, and converted to the Homebase format, beginning in February 1996, with the store in Longwell Green, Bristol, with the process being completed by 1999. In October 1999, Sainsbury's bought Hampden Group plc, the franchisee of 10 Homebase stores across Ireland. On 22 December 2000, Sainsbury's sold the Homebase chain, in a two-fold deal worth £969 million. In March 2001, the sale of the chain of 283 stores to venture capitalist Schroder Ventures generated £750 million, and the sale of 28 development sites to rival B&Q's parent company, Kingfisher plc generated £219 million. At the time, the chain had 13% of the United Kingdom market, with 283 stores and 17,000 employees, behind B&Q and Focus Do It All. In November 2002, Homebase was sold again, this time to GUS plc (formerly Great Universal Stores plc) for £900 million, where it became part of Argos Retail Group (ARG). On 10 October 2006, GUS completed a demerger of its remaining two businesses, Experian and ARG. ARG was renamed Home Retail Group, within which Homebase now operates. In October 2007, it was announced that Home Retail Group had signed a contract for the purchase of 27 leasehold properties from Focus DIY. The purchase price paid was £40 million in cash. The properties were transferred over the period up to 31 December 2007, and were then re-fitted to the Homebase fascia over the course of several months. No other infrastructure, and no merchandise stock were acquired as part of the transaction, although staff in these Focus stores transferred across to Homebase. In May 2014, Homebase launched the Homebase Design Centres. The new-look stores have a Decorating Ideas and Advice Centre, offering touch screen technology, to help customers transform the look of rooms in their homes. In October 2014, Home Retail Group announced that it would close around a quarter of Homebase stores by 2019, following a review of the business. It was also confirmed that it would increase the number of Argos and Habitat concessions within Homebase stores. In April 2015, former Tesco executive Echo Lu succeeded Paul Loft as Managing Director. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Homebase」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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