Sainsbury’s acquires ten Homebase stores
Sainsbury’s is to acquire ten leasehold stores from Homebase for conversion into supermarkets.
Once converted, the shop floor area of the stores will range from 15,000 to 40,000 square feet to add a total of around 235,000 square feet to the retailer’s trading space.
Forming part of the Next Level Sainsbury’s plan, the acquisition includes sites in key target locations as it looks grow its supermarket coverage across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
The addition of the new locations means nearly 400,000 more people will be within a ten minute drive of a Sainsbury’s supermarket.
The new stores are expected to create approximately 1,000 Sainsbury’s roles. The retailer said it has guaranteed an interview for any Homebase colleagues who are at risk of redundancy as a result of the transaction.
Sainsbury’s is expecting to complete the conversion of all sites by the end of 2025, although some of the stores will open as early as next summer.
The gross investment value of the acquisition, including the total capitalised cost of leases, acquisition premium and fit-out costs, is expected to be around £130 million.
Simon Roberts, chief executive officer of J Sainsbury, said: “Sainsbury’s food business continues to go from strength to strength as we push ahead with our Next Level Sainsbury’s plan. We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors and driving consistent growth in volume market share.
“We want to build on this momentum which is why we are growing our supermarket footprint. Our ambition is to be customers’ first choice for food and these new stores will showcase some of the best that Sainsbury’s supermarkets have to offer to even more communities around the country.”
