Tesco offering Homebase products ‘will bring greater convenience’

The supermarket will add DIY products to three of its largest style stores in a trial run which could lead to further stores taking the goods as 2022 rolls on.

Tesco this week announced, via the press,  it will be introducing a Homebase section to its Tesco Extra stores. Homebase, which at one time was launched and owned by supermarket rival Sainsbury’s, has been a Do It Yourself outlet since 1979. At the time it was deemed an ‘innovation in supermarket-style DIY shopping’. The first Homebase store was opened in 1981 at Purley Way in Croydon. In 1996, Sainsbury’s bought out its Homebase minor partner Belgian retailer, GB-Inno-BM with Sainsbury’s selling it on in 2002.

The Birmingham Mail note, ‘The first store opening this weekend will be the Tesco Extra in Borehamwood this Saturday, March 19 followed by the Tesco stores in Walkden and Woolwich in April.’

Kate Ormrod, Principal Retail Analyst at GlobalData:

“With 73% of Homebase DIY shoppers buying food & grocery from Tesco*, the deal will bring greater convenience for Homebase’s existing shoppers, while also opening it up to a new customer base – and making it more appealing to lapsed female shoppers. The deal emulates that of B&Q and ASDA, and given the consumer spend shift to food & groceries amid the rising cost of living, the concession partnership will ensure Homebase is in the right place as footfall at non-essential retailers suffers.”

A Homebase promotion on the exterior of a Tesco Extra in Borehamwood.

Tesco Extra brings Homebase into its stores.

Homebase has changed hands several times since the Sainsbury’s days from the Home Retail Group – which introduced Habitat and Argos ‘mini shops’ into floorspace – to Westfarmers which introduced some of their Australian products to stores, while other Homebase outlets took a more drastic turn and were rebranded as Bunnings Warehouse. In 2018 new owners Hilco Capital reformed the struggling company and shut 42 of its 246 branches.

Kate Ormrod, Principal Retail Analyst at GlobalData:

“Having freed up space by axing entertainment products such as CDs and DVDs from its instore proposition, Tesco is making a bigger play for home, making its offer more well-rounded. Doing so by partnering with home-related specialists, including AO, is an apt strategy, giving shoppers the expertise it is not best-placed to provide and cementing stores’ destination appeal.”

*Data from GlobalData Retail’s How Britain Shops 2021 survey of 10,000 UK respondents

Tesco offering Homebase products ‘will bring greater convenience’ with in-store offering.

In 2018 new owners Hilco Capital reformed Homebase and shut 42 of its 246 branches.