Homebase brand operators HHGL Limited and Hampden Group Limited have gone into administration with Gavin Park, Gavin Maher, and Adele Macleod of Teneo Financial Advisory Limited being appointed as Joint Administrators. Homebase has c.3600 employees and 133 stores across the UK.
Immediately after the appointment they completed a sale of up to 70 of the company’s 133 UK stores, the brand and IP to CDS (Superstores International), which trades as The Range and wilko. That move is expected to secure as many as 1,600 of the company’s 3,600 employees’ jobs.
Homebase stores will continue to trade until handed over to CDS. This follows the sale of 11 UK stores to Sainsbury’s, with completion expected on a further three. The remaining 49 UK stores will continue to trade as normal whilst the Joint Administrators continue discussions with interested parties.
There will not be any immediate redundancies whilst the Administrators assess the position of the Companies. All employee wages and benefits will be paid for their period of employment. Customer orders will still be fulfilled as far as possible, and arrangements will be put in place to allow gift vouchers to be used.