J Sainsbury’s acquisition of the Texas Homecare Group, to be incorporated into its Homebase chain, is likely to lead to the closure of up to 55 stores.
Sainsbury announced its purchase of the chain from Texas’ parent company, the Ladbroke Group, this week for £290m. Ladbroke had already earmarked 40 of its 241 stores which would need to be closed before the sale.
According to a Sainsbury spokesman, a further 15 shops may be closed because of overlapping with Homebase in certain areas.
The closures will be reviewed once again now the acquisition is complete, he said. Approximately 90% of the Texas stores are leasehold.
The Texas Homecare Group was acquired by Ladbroke in 1986. Its net assets as at June 30 1994 were £351.2m and its total selling space covered 8.2m sq ft (761,000m2).
