In message , Man at B&Q writes
Other way round I believe. The FOCUS chain was hived off separately when Travis Perkins bought Wickes. I suspect that all the debt from the original FOCUS/WICKES was moved onto the books of FOCUS. Combine that with high rents and you have another Woolworths - it works just about OK but only as long as Joe public isn't put off spending by VAT hikes and the threat of redundancy and/or 'normal' interest rates (inflation +
1%).