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It is too early to say yet what Focus Do It All is going to do with the recently acquired Wickes stores. But even before it suddenly became a chain of over 300 stores, it was clear that Focus Do It All had great plans
On the face of it, the integration of the old Do It All stores has gone remarkably smoothly. The first full year of trading for the merged group showed that the management had achieved the seemingly impossible and turned around Do It All’s significant losses and even repaid the money which it borrowed in the course of the acquisition.
It has been modernising its stores over the past year, a process which will continue for the next few years at the rate of about 30 per year. As part of the company’s rationalisation, about 25 old Do It All stores were closed after Focus bought them. It is to be expected that the Wickes acquisition might herald a further round of closures.
Focus Do It All is currently working on a large store concept.
Like its two main competitors, B&Q and Homebase, Focus Do It All is turning its attention to the large store format. During the summer it has begun work on its first Maxi store, a 9 300 m² unit in Glasgow, which is scheduled to open in the autumn of 2001. It will extend the existing ranges of building materials, flatpack furniture, kitchens, textiles and housewares. It will also include pet and crafts departments. These are the Focus Do It All “differentiators”, which set the chain apart from any other retailer and are now present in 77 and 55 stores respectively. Both sections are said to be enjoying strong growth, and 30 more were due to open in the second half of this year on the pet side alone. The company says these departments provide a “theatre” which attracts customers into the stores.
Four Maxi stores feature in the company’s current financial plan, and the aim is to have 25 in all within the next four to five years. Apparently “Maxi” is just a temporary code name.
Jim Lowe, strategic research director, says the new format will sit somewhere between B&Q’s Warehouse and the Homebase Megastore. “It’s our own version of the future of DIY retailing,” he says.
Pet departments are the centre of attraction in the stores.
In order to make its existing space work more effectively, the company is also introducing a further new format – the Mini Maxi. This will have more product differentiation along the lines of the Maxi store, but on a smaller scale. “We’ll be looking at techniques for intensifying stock density, for instance using pallet racking to make existing space work more effectively for us,” says Jim Lowe.
It seems the business could be gaining a European dimension in the future as well. “We can see the benefits of operating on a pan-European platform,” says Jim Lowe, “and we are just starting to put together a European strategy.” This has apparently already involved preliminary discussions with potential partners in Europe, although whether such approaches will be pursued now that Wickes is part of the mix remains to be seen. Prior to the Wickes acquisition, Focus Do It All was neither confirming nor denying its interest in purchasing the Great Mills chain – so really nothing would come as a surprise from this company in its present expansionary mood.
Lying behind the entire operation is quite a sophisticated central distribution operation, which currently handles over half of all the product ranges. As part of the acquisition of Do It All, the company inherited a new central distribution warehouse in the Midlands, which at the time it was built was said to be the largest in Europe.
The company says that the product ranges are now harmonised across both the old Do It All and the Focus stores, although it is admitted that there is still a certain amount of work to do in terms of integrating the overall systems capability of the business. One thing is for sure, and that is that Focus Do It All will need its systems capability fully up to scratch if it is to maximise the potential of the Wickes business.
It has been modernising its stores over the past year, a process which will continue for the next few years at the rate of about 30 per year. As part of the company’s rationalisation, about 25 old Do It All stores were closed after Focus bought them. It is to be expected that the Wickes acquisition might herald a further round of closures.
Focus Do It All is currently working on a large store concept.
Like its two main competitors, B&Q and Homebase, Focus Do It All is turning its attention to the large store format. During the summer it has begun work on its first Maxi store, a 9 300 m² unit in Glasgow, which is scheduled to open in the autumn of 2001. It will extend the existing ranges of building materials, flatpack furniture, kitchens, textiles and housewares. It will also include pet and crafts departments. These are the Focus Do It All “differentiators”, which set the chain apart from any other retailer and are now present in 77 and 55 stores respectively. Both sections are said to be enjoying strong growth, and 30 more were due to open in the second half of this year on the pet side alone. The company says these departments provide a “theatre” which attracts customers into the stores.
Four Maxi stores feature in the company’s current financial plan, and the aim is to have 25 in all within the next four to five years. Apparently “Maxi” is just a temporary code name.
Jim Lowe, strategic research director, says the new format will sit somewhere between B&Q’s Warehouse and the Homebase Megastore. “It’s our own version of the future of DIY retailing,” he says.
Pet departments are the centre of attraction in the stores.
In order to make its existing space work more effectively, the company is also introducing a further new format – the Mini Maxi. This will have more product differentiation along the lines of the Maxi store, but on a smaller scale. “We’ll be looking at techniques for intensifying stock density, for instance using pallet racking to make existing space work more effectively for us,” says Jim Lowe.
It seems the business could be gaining a European dimension in the future as well. “We can see the benefits of operating on a pan-European platform,” says Jim Lowe, “and we are just starting to put together a European strategy.” This has apparently already involved preliminary discussions with potential partners in Europe, although whether such approaches will be pursued now that Wickes is part of the mix remains to be seen. Prior to the Wickes acquisition, Focus Do It All was neither confirming nor denying its interest in purchasing the Great Mills chain – so really nothing would come as a surprise from this company in its present expansionary mood.
Lying behind the entire operation is quite a sophisticated central distribution operation, which currently handles over half of all the product ranges. As part of the acquisition of Do It All, the company inherited a new central distribution warehouse in the Midlands, which at the time it was built was said to be the largest in Europe.
The company says that the product ranges are now harmonised across both the old Do It All and the Focus stores, although it is admitted that there is still a certain amount of work to do in terms of integrating the overall systems capability of the business. One thing is for sure, and that is that Focus Do It All will need its systems capability fully up to scratch if it is to maximise the potential of the Wickes business.
