NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF


 Travis Perkins has selected Riverbed SteelCentral Aternity to increase end-user visibility, improving customer service and enhancing colleague productivity. Since deployment, the


monitoring solution has significantly reduced the average time it takes to resolve Software- as-a-Service (SaaS) application issues, effectively removing problems that could affect in-store revenue for its 23 businesses, operating from over 2,000 sites across the UK.  Home improvement and garden wholesaler Decco has been appointed retail distributor for garden power products supplier Husqvarna, covering the company’s consumer garden brands including Flymo and McCulloch. The move strengthens Decco’s offering in the garden power category, enabling them to deliver hover, petrol and electric lawn cutting from leading brands to garden centres and High Street retailers.  Homebase has confirmed that the Meols Cop branch will close just weeks before Christmas to make way for a new Sainsbury’s superstore that will create 400 jobs. When planning permission was granted, Sefton Council imposed a restriction on Sainsbury’s that it must continue to operate its existing store on Lord Street for at least five years after the new one opens.  BHETA hosted another in its successful series of Meet The Buyer days, this time with Home Hardware, the UK’s largest retailer- owned organisation. The event took place on October 17 in Barnstaple and enabled 69 meetings between suppliers and the Home Hardware buying team.  Decco has raised over £5,000 for the Greenfingers Charity at its Newton Abbot trade show dinner. Chief operating officer Charlie Lacey presented a cheque to Hillview Group’s chief executive officer Boyd Douglas Davies on behalf of Greenfingers. The show took place on October 10, one of seven regional events held by Decco every year to support the independent market.


2 DIY WEEK 10 NOVEMBER 2017


Ring sales halted by judge, as court case continues


US home automation company, Ring has had a temporary court order imposed, banning the sale of products at the heart of an ongoing lawsuit until the case reaches a resolution. The ban includes Ring’s newly- launched security system, Ring Protect.


Earlier this year security company ADT Holdings brought a case against Ring, alleging that the firm misused intellectual


property that it received when it acquired another supplier, Zonoff, out of administration. As a result of the acquisition, Ring brought on board almost all of Zonoff’s 75-strong workforce, including CEO Mike Harris. According to the lawsuit ADT invested $36 million in the now- defunct Zonoff, commissioning it to develop a home security platform known as Z1. The company then claims that information about this software


was shared with Ring once Zonoff defaulted on debts and went under - with Mr Harris allegedly handing reps a USB stick containing trade secrets about the Z1 platform during a covert meeting. Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff, however, said that the software was included in the deal and that it had paid $1.2 million for Zonoff’s help in developing a platform of its own. While the case went to trial in September, the court has yet to


Bunnings opens Harlow store


Home improvement and garden retailer Bunnings has opened its 10th UK Warehouse store, taking over the former Homebase outlet on Edinburgh Way in Harlow today. It is Bunnings’ second site in Essex, with Basildon opening on October 10. The new opening has


created over 25 full and part time jobs at the 78,000sq ft store, which stocks more than 30,000 home improvement and garden products and boasts a


garden centre. Other services include paint mixing, key cutting, timber cutting and in-store DIY Workshops.


As with all of the new Bunnings’ openings to date, the store’s team members have been helping with projects in the Harlow area. These included building a new memorial garden for children at the Holy Cross Catholic Primary Academy and giving the Harlow Cricket Club entrance a refresh by adding plants, bark chips and solar lights.


Harlow complex manager Joanne Broadhurst said: “All our team members have worked really hard to get the store ready for opening and have undertaken many hours of training to make sure we have the expertise to help customers with home or garden projects.” Having acquired Homebase in February 2016, Australian retail giant Wesfarmers, which owns the Bunnings business, has set out plans to open 20 UK locations under its Bunnings Warehouse format by the end of the year.


Its latest new opening was in


Worle in Weston-super-mare last month and stores yet to open include Basingstoke, Chichester, Rochdale, and Rotherham. New information has come to light that Bunnings has confirmed five new locations including Bicester, Walthamstow, Newmarket, High Wycombe and Hanworth.


Successful trial sees further expansion of Habitat’s mini-stores


Habitat is to launch four further new Mini Habitat stores by mid- November. New Mini Habitat stores within Sainsbury’s supermarkets will open in York (Monk’s Cross), Manchester (Cheadle), Newcastle (Heaton) and London (Wandsworth), taking the total to ten. The 2,000sq ft stores will follow the same footprint as the brand’s six current Mini store-in- store formats, as Habitat looks to create a network of regional touchpoint stores to help support its multi-channel growth strategy. With over 60% of sales now being made online through the www.habitat.co.uk website,


further investment in smaller footprint concession formats is aimed at helping to increase online shopper confidence by allowing customers to ‘touch and feel’ the quality of the products in convenient store locations.


Each Mini Habitat store will showcase an edited range of over 600 products, all designed by the Habitat design team in London, with a range of price points across furniture, upholstery, lighting, homewares and textiles. Habitat MD Clare Askem said: “We’ve learnt lots of lessons from our six trial Mini stores in Sainsbury’s this


GIMA ‘Garden & Giftware Meet the Buyer’ event to be held at Longacres


Continuing its successful programme of Buyer Connect events, the Garden Industry Manufacturers Association (GIMA) has teamed up with Longacres – the UK’s largest independent garden centre – to hold a special speed networking event with the buying team from this garden retailer on Thursday, November 30.


The family-owned group,


currently operates four centres, with the flagship Bagshot store – where the Buyer Connect event will take place - retaining the title ‘highest turnover garden centre in the UK’ for the past seven years. With an ambitious expansion plan in mind, Longacres owner, Nigel Long says he is keen to meet with new and exciting garden and giftware suppliers to assist with this growth.


year... We’ve refined our product range based on customer feedback, while our in-store visual merchandising and service proposition has been adapted to what customers want on a ‘weekly shop’ basis.”


All Buyer Connect supplier participants will be allocated 20 minutes with the relevant Longacres buyer, including Nigel Long himself. The Longacres buying team will be focussing on a number of product categories, including Plastic Pots, Containers, Core Gardening Lines, Garden Décor, Watering, Artificial, Machinery, Tools, Fertilisers & Chemicals Pest Control, Outdoor Paint, Aggregates, Timber Fencing & Related Products, Outdoor pots, Water Features & Accessories, Home Décor, and Giftware.


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come to a decision. And, in what has been described as a rare decision, the Delaware Chancery Court issued an injunction late on Thursday, November 2, barring Ring from using the Z1 platform and from using, sharing or selling Z1 or any products derived from it. The block, which will remain in place until the court makes a ruling on the case, will be a blow to Ring, as it looks set to miss out on sales over the crucial Christmas period.


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