by Jane Roberts
DIY retailers are trying to offload a record number of surplus superstores, reflecting the saturation in the DIY retailing sector.
B&Q is the latest retailer to appoint agents to dispose of surplus property. It has asked Jones Lang Wootton and Gilbert Bath to sell 13 smaller stores in locations from Leeds to Romford. This latest tranche takes the total number of DIY stores on the market and not subject to firm offers to more than 100 – 10% of all DIY stores.
The B&Q appointment coincides with the arrival at the company of Malcolm Edge. Market leader B&Q expects the number of stores from which it trades to remain static at around 280; some of those on the market have been superseded, such as the store in Romford, where a new B&Q Warehouse opens later this year in a better location.
Loss-making Do It All appointed Edgerley Simpson & Partners and Grimley to market more than 50 stores earlier this year. The company is still dealing with the overhang from its merger with Payless.
Texas Homebase hired Allsop & Co, Angermann Goddard & Loyd and J Trevor & Webster to offload 30 stores. Great Mills asked Green & Partners, King Sturge and Weatherall Green & Smith to sell 13. Wickes has three stores on the market.
Richard Perks of Verdict Research said that there were 1,072 DIY superstores at the end of 1995. “You would expect any chain to have a tail, but this is a lot of stores. Who is going to buy them? Many are too small and badly sited for present needs.”
Nick Howe of Edgerley Simpson & Partners said: “The DIY market is saturated and there is strong competition in a lot of locations. Do It All wants to cut back to a core 130 stores in excellent locations.” He added that 10 disposals were under negotiation.
Martyn Elkington of Allsop & Co said that sales had been agreed on 12 of the 30 Texas stores put on the market after Sainsbury’s takeover of Texas. Staples has acquired three, Courts, Sears, Office World and CDS International has taken one each.
