A DIY home and garden improvement retail giant that collapsed into administration with the loss of thousands of jobs owed £803 million.
A report reveals for the first time the extent of job losses at Homebase and that 1,299 creditors face losing more than £700m following the 2025 closure.
The home and garden giant which had 135 stores across the UK slumped into administration after suffering losses of over £59m. At that stage, it had 3,446 employees.
In Worcester, there were Homebase stores at Elgar Retail Park, Blackpole, which closed in early 2025, and stores on Bath Road and Hylton Road which closed in 2014 and 2019 respectively.
Gavin Park, Gavin Maher and Adele MacLeod, of Teneo Financial Advisory, were appointed as joint administrators and they told how demand for garden and home equipment was profitable during and following the pandemic but that it dropped off to a loss after this.
UK retail giant collapsed into administration owing £803m (Image: Getty Images)
The administrators said: “These losses are attributed to a number of factors affecting retail and the DIY sector, including a decline in consumer confidence and spending, high cost inflation, high interest rates, expensive freight costs, shipping delays and poor weather particularly through the peak spring and summer seasons.”
The business, including 70 stores and intellectual property, was sold to CDS (Superstores International) Limited, owned by retail magnate Chris Dawson and trading as The Range and Wilko for £25.6m.
As part of the transaction, 1,150 employees were transferred to the new owner in November 2024 and the remaining stores creased trading in March 2025.
Administrators said around 2,300 employee claims totalling £938,000 were expected.
Wells Fargo Capital was owed £20.1m which was repaid in full repaid, and Ark Finco was owed £80m.
UK retail giant collapsed into administration owing £803m (Image: Getty Images)
So far, payments totalling £57.5m have been made to Ark Finco which “made a portion of the distributions due to it under its security available to employees who had been made redundant because of the company’s administration”.
Administrators received an HMRC claim for £10.2m for unpaid PAYE and employee national insurance contributions.
The company received 1,299 claims from unsecured creditors for a total of £693m, made up mainly of one unsecured claim submitted by Ark Finco for £523m.
The administrators said: “On present information, it is not anticipated that there will be sufficient funds to enable a distribution to be made to unsecured creditors, with the exception of the prescribed part distribution referred to below.”
They continued: “It had previously been anticipated that realisations from the sale of certain Scottish leaseholds would be available to unsecured creditors.”
“During the period, the joint administrators received further legal advice in respect of these leaseholds, which directed that there was valid fixed charge security over the proceeds and therefore these proceeds were not available to unsecured creditors.
“It is anticipated that there will be a maximum prescribed part fund available for distribution to unsecured creditors of £800,000.”
A further update is expected ahead of the scheduled November end of the administration.
