History
The company had its origins in the beginning of the 1980s, when Mike Williams launched Focus Homecentres for AAH Holdings plc. In December 1987, Focus Homecentres was acquired by Choice Group Ltd.[5] The new company's shareholders included Mike Williams, Bill Archer and Greg Stanley, who had previously built up and sold the DIY chain Fads.
Focus increased its market share with a mix of both acquisitions and organic growth. This included the purchase of the Do It All DIY chain from Boots in August 1998. Until 2001, both chains were rebranded as Focus Do It All.
The company added a further 131 stores, with the purchase of Wickes in September 2000, a no frills DIY chain which focused on building supplies to the trade. This was whilst the existing Focus company had targeted the consumer end of the market. The two store formats were thought to complement each other, and so were retained as separate entities. The group became known as Focus Wickes.
The company also considered acquiring Homebase, but decided against it.[6][7]
In December 2000, the group expanded again, with the purchase of the Great Mills chain, from RMC Group. Another 98 stores were added to the portfolio. The majority of these stores were re branded as Focus, except for some larger stores which became Wickes. By 2002, through rapid expansion and acquisition, Focus had become the second biggest DIY chain in Britain with 430 stores and sales of over £1.66 billion.[8]
In December 2004, the Wickes business and stores were sold to Travis Perkins[9] for £950 million, making a tidy return on the £350 million initial investment.[8] The sale was completed in February 2005.
By January 2007, it was clear that the company had run into financial difficulties; it was close to breaching its banking covenants, and struggling under debts built up over the acquisition spree in the preceding years. The DIY market as a whole had experienced a two-year drop in sales.[8] and Focus blamed "challenging" market conditions for the difficulties.[10] Focus appointed bankers Rothschild to advise it on a potential sale of the business.[11]
The "new" Focus
Cerberus Capital purchased Focus DIY for £1 in June 2007, and appointed Bill Grimsey, formerly CEO of Wickes, as CEO.[9] In an attempt to tackle the financial problems the owners restructured the business, and injected fresh capital in the form of £200 million via loans by the owners Cerberus Capital, Bank of Scotland and GMAC.[2]
Costs were slashed, and under performing stores were either closed or sold to other retailers, including Homebase, Tesco, Wickes and Sainsbury's. A programme of new store formats and further cost cutting was undertaken in 2009.[2]
