Is the High Street doomed

[cupid_stunt]

Fuck sakes, half a billion owed, ...

It's over a billion owed.

The Aussies seriously fucked it up, how the hell did they go from buying it for £340m in 2016, and selling it for £1, with massive debts, just over 2 years later.

Homebase was plunged into financial ruin after Aussie DIY owners Wesfarmers bought the home improvement chain for £340m in 2016. The disastrous takeover saw Wesfarmers rebrand Homebase to its Australian brand Bunnings and alienate loyal customers by ditching popular products and concessions.

 

[hash tag]

Does all this money disappear into directors pockets. The banks always end being owed millions as do suppliers and probably the taxman. It's not the staff who are probably on minimum wages.

 

[Casual Observer]

It's over a billion owed.

The Aussies seriously fucked it up, how the hell did they go from buying it for £340m in 2016, and selling it for £1, with massive debts, just over 2 years later.

Must be an Aussie thing. Reminds me of Kerry Packer selling his TV network to Alan Bond for a billion dollars then buying it a couple of years later for 0.25 billion. Packer later said 'You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime and I've had mine'. A shame he couldn't pull the same trick on Murdock. Bond later went to prison for fraud. Packer revolutionised cricket while Murdock interfered with democracy in other countries.

 

[skyscraper101]

Bunnings does very well in Aus, so they must've applied that logic to the takeover of Homebase without factoring in virtually everything which makes the UK market so very different to Australia.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Bunnings does very well in Aus, so they must've applied that logic to the takeover of Homebase without factoring in virtually everything which makes the UK market so very different to Australia.

That certainly seems the back story to it.

The Australian company’s £340m takeover, just two years earlier, has been called one of the worst acquisitions in UK corporate history. It sought to rebrand Homebase under the Bunnings name it uses in Australia and overhaul its stock offering.

This moved it away from casual homewares and into heavy duty DIY and items such as large barbecues and hot tubs that sell well in Australia but have less appeal in the UK. By the time Hilco took control, 70% of the stores were losing money.

In better news, they have been saved, sad to see 1,500 jobs go, but on the positive side around 10,000 are saved.

Homebase is to cut 1,500 jobs as part of a rescue deal that will save the DIY chain from bankruptcy and give it breathing space to recover from the disastrous stewardship of its previous owners.

Homebase rescued from collapse but 1,500 jobs to go

 

[skyscraper101]

Homebase is a basically the home decor and outdoor section of the Argos catalogue except you can walk around and browse.

 

[daah]

woaa.

 

[hash tag]

Waterstones buys Foyles Interesting. Foyles new flagship in Charing Cross Road just a short walk from Waterstones Picadilly, not tomention Hatchards a few doors away. More closures and job losses?
Waterstones buys Foyles 'to defend bookshops'

 

[hash tag]

This doesn't look good either. Not the best of bike shops nor the worst, but been around a while now Yahoo is now part of Oath

 

[Dogsauce]

This doesn't look good either. Not the best of bike shops nor the worst, but been around a while now Yahoo is now part of Oath

Quite surprising as they have quite a strong online presence and are competitive with prices on the web, I’ve ordered quite a few bits from them. I guess they’re getting shafted a bit by the likes of Wiggle and maybe Amazon. Bike shops have been doing better in recent years with bike to work schemes & popularity of cycling increasing (both recreational and utility), although that money is spread around more retailers than it used to be.

 

[hash tag]

Evans have expanded a lot in the last 10 years, which may not have been good for them. Apart from online, I think many non cyclists go to Halfords.

 

[not-bono-ever]

debanhams have spent all weekend with KPMG

bad news rising i think

 

[hash tag]

No surprises there I don't think.

 

[stavros]

You'd initially think that for something like a bike, or for associated items, you'd want to "try it on" in the shop, rather than buy online. But then the same could be said for clothes before BHS, HoF, et al.

 

[cupid_stunt]

debanhams have spent all weekend with KPMG

bad news rising i think

Mike Ashley must be wanking himself off tonight, he's was after Debenhams even before getting interested in House of Fraser.

 

[not-bono-ever]

soemthing that has struck me is the the idea of shops being turned primarily into display outlets, to allow people to browse and take pics, then to hopefully go home and order online has a curious retro Soviet kinda vibe to it.Course luxury goods is more about the event rather than the product, so they fall outside this theme. Changes in consumption process seesm to be afoot.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Profits at John Lewis have fallen to almost zero in the first half of its financial year as its department store chain battled to match discounting "extravaganza days" by rivals.

John Lewis Partnership chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield said the retail sector was facing "challenging times".

Its results, which include Waitrose, showed profits for the six months to 28 July sank 99% from last year to £1.2m.

John Lewis profits slump 99%

That's one hell of a drop.

 

[hash tag]

Mike Ashley must be wanking himself off tonight, he's was after Debenhams even before getting interested in House of Fraser.

The nice Mr Ashley is probably waiting for Debs to go into liquidation, ignore the debts, flog the assets and turn a nice profit or have i misunderstood him?

 

[Saul Goodman]

Only fried chicken emporiums and Paddy power in 10 years...

My local KFC has just closed its doors and is getting turned into a coffee shop.

 

[Saul Goodman]

You'd initially think that for something like a bike, or for associated items, you'd want to "try it on" in the shop, rather than buy online. But then the same could be said for clothes before BHS, HoF, et al.

The distance selling regulations mean you can send stuff back if you don't like it or it doesn't fit. What's the point going into a busy shop when you can do it from the comfort of your home?

 

[cybershot]

The distance selling regulations mean you can send stuff back if you don't like it or it doesn't fit. What's the point going into a busy shop when you can do it from the comfort of your home?

Ditto with tech, buy from a shop, decide you don't like it, and you'll have a real struggle trying to get a cash refund. Online, use it to your hearts content for 14 days (maybe even longer now) decide you don't like it, or even, done what you've need to do with it, send it back, full refund. Amazon for all their ills in this thread for the downfall of the high street, but is a good argument in this case, will refund you as soon as it's scanned in at the point of return. Or at least, they seem to with me, maybe it requires to build a customer profile first and you get marked for returning goods in a resell able conditional.

 

[chilango]

The "High Street" isn't just about shops and shopping though

It's a physical location.

A site, however gentrified or privatised or dominated by consumer society, of community of sorts.

Where people meet. Do stuff together. See others doing stuff.

That's the loss I'm interested in.

 

[Saul Goodman]

The "High Street" isn't just about shops and shopping though

It's a physical location.

A site, however gentrified or privatised or dominated by consumer society, of community of sorts.

Where people meet. Do stuff together. See others doing stuff.

That's the loss I'm interested in.

Somebody needs to invent an app for the Amazon marketplace, that bumps into and pushes you, and makes you cold and wet, then makes you queue for 15 minutes before letting you pay, and once you have finally paid and left the marketplace, it deposits a lump of dog turd on your shoe.

 

[chilango]

Somebody needs to invent an app for the Amazon marketplace, that bumps into and pushes you, and makes you cold and wet, then makes you queue for 15 minutes before letting you pay, and once you have finally paid and left the marketplace, it deposits a lump of dog turd on your shoe.

I think it's already been released, but only to workers in Amazon's warehouses.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Must be an Aussie thing.

It's not an Aussie thing. Look at Philip Green's catastrophic ownership of BHS.

 

[Casual Observer]

It's not an Aussie thing. Look at Philip Green's catastrophic ownership of BHS.

You misunderstand my post, Frank. My post was specifically about Aussie tycoon incompetence in paying too much for a company then selling it off at a fraction of the price a few years later. The example I gave was Alan Bond buying Nine Network for AUS$1bn from Packer and then selling it back to Packer a few years later for a quarter of that price.

Philip Green is another kind of species . Green, not an Aussie, bought BHS for peanuts, bum-raped the pension fund to the tune of a few hundred million, then sold the company to someone else for £1. The company went bust shortly thereafter. Green later paid £363m to the pension regulator to avoid prosecution.

To avoid further misunderstanding, I'm not criticising Kerry Packer here. We both know he did great things for cricket

 

[Dogsauce]

I keep reading this thread title as ‘is the High Street domed?’ and expect it to be about future utopian cities sealed in giant glass bubbles to protect against climate extremes or something.

 

[kenny g]

bum-raped the pension fund

 

[Peter Chadwick]

The "High Street" isn't just about shops and shopping though

It's a physical location.

A site, however gentrified or privatised or dominated by consumer society, of community of sorts.

Where people meet. Do stuff together. See others doing stuff.

That's the loss I'm interested in.

its not just the High Street .. its shopping malls and out of town stores too. Retail brick and mortar generally.

 

[hash tag]

Noticed that both my local carphone warehouses have closed down and just found this, no big loss really

Retailer Orla Kiely ceases trading on cash crunch - Retailer Orla Kiely ceases trading