NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
Dulux has unveiled pop-star-turned-presenter Rochelle Humes as the ambassador for the 2017 Colour of the Year, Denim Drift. A soft grey-blue, Denim Drift was launched at the company’s annual Colour Futures trend forecasting event and was the culmination of extensive research conducted by a global panel of design professionals. Tepro UK, Batavia and Croydex are the latest garden leisure and DIY companies to join BHETA. Tepro UK is part of the Canadian Tepro barbecues, barbecue accessories and covers supplier, which has on and offline distribution throughout the UK. Batavia is a Dutch-based international brand of innovative tools for home, garden, workshop, office and construction, founded in 2009. Croydex supplies bathroom accessories from its five-acre site in Andover, Hampshire. Leading DIY adhesives and sealants producer Bostik has rejoined BHETA after a year’s absence. The Stafford-based company sells through multiple, independent and online channels nationwide. Jephsons DIY, the independent DIY store in the north-east Derbyshire market town of Shirebrook which closed down last autumn, is back in business – with a new name, and a new owner. New owner Ammar Ali has taken over the store after learning the trade in his father’s shop, Carlton DIY of Nottingham, and is trading as Shirebrook DIY, Home & Garden. The store re-opened on January 16. Logistics firm DHL has revealed plans to relocate the Argos distribution centre in Stafford, putting 129 jobs at risk of redundancy. It would mean work from the site would transfer to sites in Darlington and Bedford. A 45 day consultation is now underway to determine the fate of the 129 workers at the Stafford site. Unite the Union officer Simon Green said: “The number of redundancies really is a moving target every time we meet. We meet with management, put a number of counter proposals to them and they go away to look at them.
2 DIY WEEK 24 FEBRUARY 2017
B&Q to open north London ‘small format’ store
DIY giant B&Q will be opening its first 3,000sq ft ‘small format’ store on Holloway Road, London, next month. The store is said to be aimed at the casual home improver and aims to go head to head with independent DIY stores in a bid to serve locals’ tools and hardware needs. The store will not be stocking building materials, wood-cutting or ‘Trade Point’ counters found in
B&Q’s larger stores.
The opening has been earmarked for March 10. A B&Q spokesperson said: “The trial store will be just over 3,000 sq ft in size, and will provide customers with an offer focused on home décor, repair and maintenance, with a suite of supporting services.
“B&Q will also enable customers access to its full range of more than 35,000
products via home delivery and click & collect.” The new store is part of the mass ‘One Kingfisher’ strategy outlined by Kingfisher chief executive Veronique Laury in 2015. The company’s ethos includes “achieving significant benefits from developing a more common, unique and effective offer” and points out “there is no one clear, winning format or channel in our market today.”
Glee to become biannual with concession show at Spring Fair
The Glee show is to become a biannual event with the announcement that it will be opening a concession show at next year’s Spring Fair show. Both Spring Fair and Glee take place at the NEC, Birmingham, and the garden exhibition’s appearance at the February show is designed to complement its main September event. Glee at Spring Fair will give retailers the opportunity to see new and best-selling ranges ahead of the spring season. A second addition at this time of year is hoped to give retailers an additional destination to refresh their ranges for key retail spikes. Glee in February will also provide garden buyers with the latest concepts and trends for 2018, helping them to direct their buying. Categories that
retailers can source will include garden care, landscaping and garden decoration, and outdoor entertaining.
Long-term Glee visitor, Mike Burks of The Gardens Group said: “Glee’s new Spring Fair concession is a great idea. By providing a garden centre hub it will help Glee’s visitors at Spring Fair to focus on the products most relevant to them. Additionally, the presence of these garden-related exhibitors will introduce products to those buyers that wouldn’t normally see them. The Gardens Group buying team will be sure to visit in 2018.”
Glee at Spring Fair will take prime location in hall three and will have the signature wide boulevard synonymous with the September layout. Glee event director Matthew
Glee’s Spring Fair concession will complement its regular September show
Mein said: “The buying cycle for gardening, outdoor living gifts, and design-led products stretches across the whole year. However, in the Glee 2016 post-show visitor survey, over 15% said that they would also make purchasing decision in first quarter of the year.”
Screwfix opens its 500th store
Kingfisher retailer Screwfix is celebrating its 500th store milestone with the opening of a new Enfield branch, the second in the area, which will create 15 new jobs.
Since opening its first store in
Yeovil back in 2005, Screwfix has launched one store per week for the past six years. This means that 90% of the UK population is now within a 20-minute drive of
a store. There are currently more than 10,000 Screwfix employees across the UK.
Said chief executive Andrew Livingston: “We’re immensely proud to be opening our 500th Screwfix store. This is a significant moment for our business and demonstrates our focus on continued growth to meet the needs of our busy customers. “As we reach this milestone
Screwfix’s new store at Lumina Park, Enfield, is its 500th
for Screwfix, I want to thank our staff and, of course our customers. Our success relies on their success, so we remain as committed as ever to making things easier for them.” The extensive Screwfix store network is visited by 2.9m customers a year and Screwfix. com by 2.5 million unique visitors each week. Its Click & Collect service has received more than 13 million orders.
B&Q’s first ‘small format’ store will open on March 10 on Holloway Road, North London
Axminster Tools recognised as top 250 ecommerce retailer
Devon-based Axminster Tools & Machinery has recently been listed in the top 250 ecommerce and cross- channel retailers, as detailed in the Internet Retailing UK (IRUK) Top 500 report 2017, moving up a level from the top 350 group where the company was placed in 2016. Axminster is in the same group as well-known brands, such as Harvey Nichols, Ralph Lauren, Reebok and Yankee Candle. The company is also higher up the list than other familiar names, including Fortnum & Mason, Iceland, The North Face, and Plumbase. The IRUK research team has looked in depth at the UK’s leading ecommerce and cross- channel retailers, comparing and contrasting the capabilities of these top-level traders to see where and how the best retailers excel.
Axminster attributed the impressive result to a committed web, social media and digital marketing team. Dedicated customer service and logistics teams are strong, with the company averaging 9.7 out of 10 on Trust Pilot. Its eight stores across the UK mean face-to-face retailing is still strong. Axminster’s managing director Alan Styles said: “The results of this research are very interesting. They are based on a set of criteria we’ve been focusing on and improved upon.
He concluded: “I think we should feel extremely encouraged to have moved up within a year from the top 350 to the top 250.”
www.diyweek.net
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