www.focusdiy.co.uk/ 

Overview of Focus

We are the third-largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom by market share and offer an extensive range of DIY and gardening products, primarily to consumers seeking to undertake light home improvement and maintenance projects. As at 31 October 2004, we operated 256 stores, with a total of approximately 8.2 million square feet of net selling space (including 1.9 million square feet of outdoor selling space) and, on average, approximately 32,000 square feet of net selling space per store.

We aim to be the store of choice and convenience for DIY and gardening products in each of the markets in which we operate. We offer a comprehensive range of own brand and branded products. Our product ranges include decorative products (such as paint and wall coverings), core DIY products (such as tools and building materials), home enhancement products (including bathroom and kitchen units) and gardening and seasonal products (such as plants and lawnmowers). The size and scale of our operations allow us to pursue a competitive pricing policy on our core product offering, which we believe promotes strong customer loyalty.

Our stores are well-distributed nationally, with approximately 60% located in our target markets which consists of market towns (with populations of between 20,000 and 80,000) and edge-of-urban locations.

History

We were founded by Bill Archer, our Chairman, and a former business partner in 1987. We have grown through a number of acquisitions, including acquisitions of Do It All Limited in 1998 and Great Mills in 2000. The new businesses were geographically complementary to our existing businesses, with minimal store overlap and a similar strategy of locating stores in market towns. Following these acquisitions, we rebranded all of the stores to the Focus brand. In addition, in September 2000, we acquired Wickes PLC, a business targeting trade customers. Since this acquisition we converted 39 Focus stores located outside our target markets to Wickes stores to improve their profitability.

On 11 February 2005, Wickes Limited was sold to Travis Perkins.

www.focuskitchenappliances.co.uk/