NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
Oak Furnitureland officially opened its first Fife store in Kirkcaldy on Saturday, July 29. Featuring a mezzanine floor, the 18,119 sq ft showroom is located at the Fife Central Retail Park, creating 7 new jobs and forms part of the company’s on-going expansion plans. Travis Perkins has been recognised for its work supporting the Armed Forces with a Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Silver award. TP has recruited 200 service leavers since 2015 in roles spanning branch management, IT and supply chain and logistics and became the 1,500th signatory to the Armed Forces Covenant in March 2017. Wickes has launched a new loyalty programme exclusively for its trade customers – Wickes TradePro – offering 10% off purchases in-store or online throughout the year, with no minimum spend. The scheme has been created to ramp up Wickes’ price competitiveness, saying it will “ensure shopping at Wickes is always cheaper for trade customers”. Targeted marketing will be used to let TradePro members know about new products, latest offers and time-limited discounts. John Lewis tops the overall rankings of the best brands for customer service, according to YouGov BrandIndex’s score. This is a measure of overall brand health which takes into account consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether they would recommend it to others. The top five in the UK General Retail rankings are IKEA, Argos, B&Q, Wilko and Dunelm. Retailers must embrace contactless payment, according to a Barclaycard study. The continued surge of ‘touch and go’ payments is set to save UK shoppers 141 million hours, worth almost a billion pounds in time by 2021 according to the study. Ahead of the 10th anniversary of contactless payments next month, Barclaycard’s data predicts that the number of contactless transactions will increase by 317% in the next four years.
2 DIY WEEK 11 AUGUST 2017
Flooring Republic set for “monster growth” in UK
Chinese-owned flooring retailer, Flooring Republic has set out a manifesto to become the biggest player in the UK flooring market by the end of 2018, with plans to grow its store portfolio from 22 to 80 “Massive investment, major impact and monster growth” are set to be the hallmarks of Flooring Republic’s next 18 months, said the company as it puts ambitious plans in place to position the fast-growing business as the largest solid wood and wood laminate flooring specialists in the UK by the end of next year.
Flooring Republic is the UK
retail arm of Anbo Holdings, a family-run global flooring business that was established in 1988. Headquartered in China, Anbo has operations in the USA, Australia, Italy and France.
The retailer said its growth has come hand in hand with the “phenomenal increase in wood flooring demand” and with, this expected to increase even further the retailer now plans to extends its reach in the UK. The company has had huge backing from what it describes as “powerful Chinese investors”, which has already resulted in the acquisition of online flooring specialists Posh Flooring, making a substantial addition to its portfolio; and the number of Flooring Republic outlets is set to double in the coming months with the aim of having 80 stores retailing throughout the UK by December next year. Anbo International and Flooring Republic CEO Bobby Zhou said: “We are actively seeking and being regularly approached by strategic
business allies that will see us add to our nationwide network through local enterprise partnerships with councils in cities and towns in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Existing colleagues in cities such as London, Leeds, Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Cardiff are already working closely with Flooring Republic and share our enthusiasm. Our message is clear. We intend to be number one in this industry and we want to work with you.”
Mr Zhou and Dominic Nowell-
Barnes, previously CEO of Posh Flooring, which he started in 2008, view the next 18 months
as “just the beginning” of Flooring Republic’s intended dominant position in the UK flooring market, adding that the ultimate goal is to float the company on the stock exchange.
Australian housewares chain Sofology House to launch in UK
Australian retailer House, owned by Global Retail Brands, is preparing to move into the UK market next year with plans to open 75 stores. Global Retail Brands which aoperates Pet House Superstore and Your Home Depot, aims to open its first tranche of House stores by April 2018 with 75 planned within three years. Billed as Australia’s largest specialty homewares retailer, House operates 170 stores in the country focused on ‘kitchen, cooking, dining and entertaining’. Each branch
typically carries up to 4,000 lines including cookware, tabletop, kitchenware, small electricals and rugs. Its website offers a wide range of pet products. Global Retail Brands executive chairman Steven Lew said: “Over the last couple of years we’ve looked at ‘opportunity markets’, both nationally and internationally and the UK seems like a very good fit for us. “We want House to become a household name in the UK as the go-to for cooking and entertaining and believe that 75 stores is a safe number to target.
However, we want to create a sustainable product. For example, we’re not focusing on putting a showcase on Oxford Street as we want the first store to be the same as the 75th. If compelling opportunities present themselves, we will have the opportunity to open even more.” House is looking at outlets in shopping centres and retail parks, targeting unit sizes of about 3,500sq ft. In the past 18 months, House executive directors have visited almost 100 potential locations up and down the country.
Wickes delivered strong results in H1
Total revenue in Travis Perkins Group’s consumer division grew 7.3% to £822m in the first half of the year, up 4.7% on a like-for-like basis. The division delivered a strong
revenue performance, with Wickes outperforming a tough DIY market, said the group, and continued strong growth in Toolstation through network expansion and accelerating like- for-like growth in existing stores. Kitchen and bathroom
showroom activity delivered excellent growth for Wickes during the trading periods, helped by its offer and targeted promotional activity, although
Travis Perkins expects this to moderate in the second half. Wickes’ store refit programme continued. The stores continue to deliver strong growth in sales in both showroom and core DIY categories, said the group, with 82 new store formats in operation. Further progress was made to improve the online offer, with new range extensions and same-day, one-hour delivery slots. The consumer division reported an adjusted operating profit of £45m, up 2.3% on the same period last year.
DFS acquires
Furniture retailer DFS has exchanged contracts to acquire Sofology for an initial enterprise value of £25m on a debt-free, cash-free basis payable upon completion. In addition, further payments could be made around 12 months following completion based upon a multiple of seven times the underlying EBITDA generated by Sofology over a future 12-month period, less the £25m that will have already been paid. Specialist sofa retailer Sofology which operates 37 stores across the UK, received a £10m investment from the Business Growth Fund in March 2016 for a minority interest to support its UK expansion plans. Sofology chief executive Jason Tyldesley, together with the current management team will continue to lead the business post-completion.
DFS expects Sofology to
Adjusted operating margin was down 20 basis points to 5.5%, primarily due to the ongoing investments in store refits and new store openings, together with increasing investment to expand Toolstation in Europe.
retain its current headquarters in Golborne, Greater Manchester and maintain full independent control over its customer experience and all customer- facing activities. DFS said that no store closures would occur as a result of the acquisition. In addition, the store-opening
programmes of both DFS and Sofology will continue, “given the proven ability of the two brand fascias to trade successfully alongside each other in multiple locations”.
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