Staff ‘gutted’ as UK giant cuts thousands of jobs amid administration

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.

Among the Homebase stores which closed was one at Fairacres Retail Park in Abingdon, which closed early last year after a rescue effort failed.

Spanning 23,800 sq ft, the store opened in a new unit alongside Lidl and Costa Coffee back in 2021.

Reacting to the impending closure back in 2024, staff at the store told this newspaper that they were “gutted” to be losing jobs.

A member of staff at the Abingdon store said: “As far as we know, the Homebase in Cowley has been rescued, but we haven’t – it looks like this one is going to close.

“There are 18 staff who work here, and we’re all gutted. 

“This Homebase only opened in 2021 – it’s a brand new store, so it doesn’t make sense to close it.”

The store did indeed close in February 2025, and fellow Oxfordshire stores in both Banbury and Oxford closed before the company went into administration.

Gavin Park, Gavin Maher and Adele MacLeod, of Teneo Financial Advisory, were appointed as joint administrators.

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 ceased trading in March 2025.

Administrators said about 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.

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.