NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
Glee 2017 will boast its “strongest pet contingent for many years,” say show organisers, with a host of UK and international exhibitors lined up, along with a newly-launched Buyer Connect event and news that the Petquip Business Village has doubled in size. According to a recent report, 70% of UK garden centres now feature a dedicated pet care section, while total spend in the sector in the UK reached a record high of £5.08 billion last year. The latest new B&M Home store opened in Doncaster this month, complete with a large 5,842sq ft garden centre. It’s the latest addition to the South Yorkshire region and has created more than 50 jobs. B&M will open a further six new stores between now and
September 8, two of which will have garden centre attachments in Port Tolbot and Frome. B&M operates 118 garden centres with its outlets nationwide. Wickes is offering free sun cream to tradespeople as part of a new trial. The move follows research that reveals 1 in 10 industry workers don’t wear sun cream because they’re worried workmates will laugh at them and 91% don’t know how much sun cream is required during a typical 12-hour summer’s day. With Melanoma skin cancer incidence rates on the rise, construction workers have been found to be most at risk in the UK. Häfele, specialist in furniture fittings and architectural hardware, has become a corporate member of the Furniture Makers Company, the charity for the furnishing industry. The organisation provides a wide range of support for those involved in the furniture business, running an education programme to nurture future industry talent and providing financial and practical support for workers in the furniture industry who have fallen on hard times. Screwfix opened its fourth store in Glasgow on August 24 at Anniesland Business Park, creating 14 new jobs in the area. Throughout the store’s launch celebration (August 24-27) the company will offer a 10% discount on all product ranges in addition to other specific special offers.
2 DIY WEEK 25 AUGUST 2017
Indie Tool Shop expands with two new locations
The Tool Shop Group confirmed that it was adding two further branches to its network of nine shops in and around central London. The independent hardware chain has secured two new London units – in Camden and Islington – and reveals plans to grow the business further with new acquisitions in the pipeline. The retail business, owned and run by BIRA president Vin Vara, celebrates 20 years of trading this year and Mr Vara told DIY Week he has plans to operate 15 stores by Easter. The first of the two new units is located on Upper Street near Angel Underground station, less than a mile from Tool Shop’s existing Islington branch on the same road.
Discussing the new addition
to the Tool Shop estate, Mr Vara said he had initially been looking for a bigger unit in the area to provide a more comprehensive offer to local customers but had been unable to find a space that met his requirements. The plan going forward is that the new smaller shop will complement the current Islington store with an extended offer including housewares and trade paint. The branch is undergoing a complete refurb but will be trading by the first week of September. The second new unit is a book shop on Camden High Street – a location that Mr Vara says he has been after for a number of years. This 1,000sq ft shop is set to open at the end of November to give the current owner time
to vacate the premises before a full refit by Tool Shop to bring it in line with the rest of its branches. The shop, which is similar in size to its flagship Waterloo branch, will provide a full hardware offer and locksmith service. Mr Vara said of the Camden site: “I have been after this unit for a long time. It’s a great
location with fantastic footfall. Retailers on the street are trading seven days a week and there are plenty of people along that street every day.” He added that he
Asda parent introduces voice shopping technology
US retailer Walmart is teaming up with Google to enter the voice-shopping market, which is currently dominated by pure-play giant Amazon. From next month consumers in the US will be able to buy Walmart products using a voice- activated Google Assistant platform on mobile phones and smart home devices.
Amazon’s voice-enabled virtual assistant Alexa already llets consumers shop directly from its site. The new partnership enables Walmart to challenge Amazon’s dominance of the voice shopping market. In a blog post, Walmart’s head of e-commerce Marc Lore said that the retailer plans to expand the use of voice-activated shopping across its 4,700 stores to “create customer experiences that don’t currently exist within voice shopping anywhere else”. For example, Walmart, which owns the UK’s Asda supermarket chain, could offer consumers the choice of picking up an order in store at a discount or enable users to use voice shopping to purchase fresh groceries across the country.
Johnson’s Ironmongers closes
Johnson’s Ironmongers in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, has closed down. Philip Johnson, who was the fourth generation of the Johnson family to run the shop, had owned the business since 1952 but died in January at the age of 88, and the family decided to close down rather than keep the business going.
The shop has been in existence since 1888 and moved to its present site on Chatsworth Road in 1898 when it became a general ironmongers.
It was an old-fashioned shop with bare boards on the floor, a paraffin pump in the corner and idiosyncratic opening hours including Wednesday half-day closing and closing for lunch. However, the shop was much loved by its customers and the news of its closure has caused some sadness. Johnson’s was the last independent hardware shop serving Chesterfield’s population of 70,000 and had held its own against nearby branches of B&Q, Wickes, Homebase and Focus
Hundreds of thousands of
products will be available. While Amazon has long proved stiff competition for bricks-and- mortar retailers by promising low prices, often with free delivery, Google has been trying to offer high street retailers a way to fight back by offering their products on its Google Express online shopping marketplace. Via the platform, consumers can buy from stores including Costco, Ace Hardware, Orchard Supply Hardware, Bed Bath and Beyond and Wayfair. Walmart will offer more items than any retailer on the Google Express platform. While the technology will only be available to Walmart customers in the US, it may not be long before it is rolled out to Asda in the UK.
sees a gap in the market there, with “no real competitors close by” and believes that locals in the area are “in need of a quality hardware retailer.”
Bunnings heads to Weston-super- Mare and Essex
Bunnings confirms it will open its ninth Warehouse store in Worle later this year, taking over the site of the Homebase on Bristol Road. The new store is approximately 76,000sq ft and will employ an additional 20 full and part-time team members, taking the total team members to 70.
A Bunnings spokesperson said: “This is an exciting development for us as our pilot programme continues the momentum of establishing the Bunnings Warehouse format across the UK.”
It will be the first Bunnings store in the south west of the country, following an announcement by Bunnings that it would be doubling its store roll-out target and extending its geographic reach to locations further north and south of London.
DIY. The town now has only multiples: a B&Q Warehouse, Wickes, The Range, Wilko, two Screwfix trade counters and a number of builders merchants.
Meanwhile, its 10th pilot store will be the Homebase store on Edinburgh Way in Harlow. The store on Harlow retail park boasts an Argos Extra on site. Bunnings Warehouses already
trade from St Albans, Hemel Hempstead and Milton Keynes. The most recent store opened in Folkestone on July 29.
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