Focus DIY seeking administration

[Man at B&Q]

They owned Wickes for a while.

MBQ

[Jules Richardson]

And at one point at least some of them were Focus Do it all's, and before that WH Smith Do it all's... what were they before they were owned by WH Smith, though? The wikipedia article says "Do It All was originally created by WH Smith in 1979 when the company acquired a DIY chain" - but what chain was that?

cheers

Jules

[tim....]

Yep, it's about right.

Commercial LLs will rarely give new tenants lower rents. What they will give is very long rent free periods at the start of the tenancy.

this gives the tenant a discount without affecting the value of the lease

[Andrew Gabriel]

Even less than it did a couple of years ago, now that the landlord has to pay the rates on an empty property, which they didn't used to do. This has resulted in some properties being illegally demolished, as any resulting fines are likely to be much less than the rates they would otherwise have to pay.

[ARWadsworth]

Usually arson and "kids".

[Andrew Gabriel]

Yes, I thought they'd gone ages ago - certainly the ones I knew of have. Didn't they used to have high street shops too, or am I mixing that up with another chain?

I recall the Focus warehouse in Luton got off to a must unfortunate shaky start, when on the first or second day, a young girl was killed when some goods fell off a trolly onto her. Wasn't quite the publicity they were seeking, and I always thought about that even years later when I drove past it.

[Chris Wilson]

Jules Richardson wrote in news:ipu60s $hl$ [e-mail]:

A small brass one, came of the Queen Mary or so I'm told.

[Chris Wilson]

"ARWadsworth" wrote in news:ipu7dg$5fo$ [e-mail]:

Up in Lancs it was usually sufficient to remove the roofs.

[Tinkerer]

The only two from those days that come to mind were Texas (who can forget Texas Tom) and Great Mills. I suspect it may have been the latter but I am not sure.

[Adrian C]

"LCP Homecentres" (whom I don't remember much about)

[Clive George]

I think Great Mills ended up in Focus. There was a great mills still going when we moved here in about 1998, and it was a focus last time I looked (from the outside - never found much useful inside).

Texas also post-date doitall.

[Steve Firth]

Texas were still trading in the late 80s, and may just have gone through to the 90s. I knew that the writing was on the wall for them when they started to advertise kitchens with a promise to give the buyer 100% of the purchase price back in five years time. An offer that makes one suspect that the company won't be in business in five years time.

[Clive George]

I think I visited one of their stores once, realised they didn't sell anything useful, so ignored them thereafter.

[Andrew Gabriel]

On the A40 going in to London (somewhere near the Hoover Building), there was an empty factory unit. Just after the law changed, it turned into a pyramid of concrete rubble, with a big board saying "No money from this one, Mr Brown", and an arrow pointing at the rubble. I couldn't help laughing...

The pile of rubble has been there ever since, but the sign is now gone.

[Man at B&Q]

It says nothing of the sort

given the history, no mention of WHS at all.

MBQ

[ARWadsworth]

Maybe Jules was referring to

[John Williamson]

From the WH Smith history page on their website:-

"1979 * WHSmith acquires LCP Homecentres, later to become WHSmith Do It All."

Then:- "1990 * The Boards of Boots and WHSmith announce the formation of a joint venture in the UK DIY retail market. The joint venture acquired the Payless (Boots) and Do It All (WHSmith) businesses, to trade under the name Do It All Limited."

Smith's 50% share was then sold to Boots for a £1 gift voucher in 1996.

There are three articles about it that I found, and they all give different versions of the history.

[Steve Firth]

That was the premises of Vanguard the infamous "Hawker Hunter on the roof" removals and storage company.

[Andy Dingley]

Forseen here some years ago, because no-one could think of a reason to go into a Focus store. They sold housewares that were a bit cheap & nasty compared to Habitat, Ikea or even Wilkos. They sold some building supplies, but never enough to do the job. It was a store that just didn't know what direction it was going in.

Personally I rather liked it. Focus was useless, but I happen to live near "No Frills DIY" which was Focus' excess stock clearance shop. You never knew what you'd find there, but it would be cheap. Really cheap. Sometimes it would be half price - and half price meant everything in the shop was likely to be half price that weekend, which also included their non-clearance things like coal, Rug Doctor shampoo, branded Leyland masonry paint and other useful, but generally costly things. Sometimes it would even be cheap - such as Christmas decoration clearance (conveniently just before Christmas itself), when their LED ropelights and general chavlighting went out of the door for =A32 a box. Keep an eye out later this year, when I'll be eBaying the palletload or so that I managed to grab (=A350 bought me a carload).

The writing was clearly on the wall though just after Christmas, when I went one day to find a locust swarm had descended. Cheaper than ever, but little stock and obviously no new stock coming in. Despite assurances, this was clearly the beginning of the end. Confirmed by a cheery poster on the wall denying it.

So goodbye Cheapo DIY. You were an object, and obvious, lesson in how not to run a business, but your ineptitude saved me a good few quid over the last few years.

[D.M.Chapman]

Are you thinking of Fads? That was more high street IIRC.

Our local Focus turned into a Wickes around 10 years ago. Much more useful :-)

Darren