Details here

Yet another company struggling, but I only know about it because the website isn’t working (wife wanted to look at paint / wallpaper)! Does this mean the recession is over as the press doesn’t seem to be giving a toss that yet another national retailer has entered administration 🙄

I heard it on the radio last week. Does that mean the recession is/isn’t over?

Went in there 2 weeks ago, half the stoick missing, and 2 external doors in the whole place.

There will be a few more national retailers going soon as well.

Oddnins too.

Supermarkets stock lots of DIY stuff now….

Went in there 2 weeks ago, half the stoick missing, and 2 external doors in the whole place.

Sounds like an average day at our local focus store.

druidh, I’m now confused and don’t know…. think I’ll get another beer

Are they not owned by the Sainsburys group?

Well it’s always been a bit crap really to be fair.

Compared to b&q, wickes etc it’s always been a poor relation. Wickes rebranded themselves a few years ago and now have a great website and service. Focus website was appalling and the shops full of chavs buying bloody hamsters.

Overpriced accident waiting to happen.

Focus have been useless for years, B&Q and Wickes have wiped the floor with them in their chosen market. Screwfix and Toolstation are making massive inroads in selling to Joe Public as well as trade. Tesco and internet shopping for the rest. Poor business goes under, better ones grow, don’t see it as a loss overall.

Four venture capital firms later backed Archer in a £4.5m buyout. The business grew rapidly by acquiring rivals Do It All, Great Mills and Wickes (the latter sold to builders’ merchant Travis Perkins in 2005). Focus was bought by Cerberus, which took on debts of £180m, for £1 in 2007 and hired former Wickes boss Bill Grimsey to turn it around. It is thought the US firm spent about £200m trying to rescue Focus.