53°27′51.6″N 2°53′57″W / 53.464333°N 2.89917°W
 | |
| Company type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | Liverpool, England (1976) |
| Founder | Tom Morris |
| Headquarters | Liverpool, England, UK |
Number of locations | 595 (2022)[1] |
Area served | United Kingdom |
Key people | Tom Morris (Managing Director) Paul Rowland (Operations Director) Graeme McLoughlin (Finance Director) |
| Products | Groceries, general merchandise |
| Revenue |  £2.5 billion (2019) |
| £498.3 million (2016) | |
| £184 million (2019) | |
| Owner | TJ Morris |
Number of employees | 34,000 (2022)[2] |
| Website | www |
Home Bargains is a British variety store chain founded in 1976 by Tom Morris in Liverpool, England, as Home and Bargain. It is the trading name of TJ Morris Ltd, stocking up to 4,000 branded product lines, and employs over 34,000 staff members from head office staff, warehouse and transport staff to shop staff.
In 2013, the company estimated they served over three million customers, and published a record breaking turnover of £1 billion, which was subsequently increased by 50% three years later in 2016. Home Bargains was ranked in sixth place in a Which? list of 100 Top Stores, making them the highest ranking discount retailer in the United Kingdom. In the latter half of the 2010s, Home Bargains rapidly expanded by opening more locations in out-of-town retail parks rather than traditional town centre locations. This grew their store base, which stands at 595 as of 2022. Their closest competitor is B&M, which operates a similar format.
History
The retailer was founded by owner Tom Morris in 1976 as a single store called Home and Bargain[3] in Old Swan, Liverpool when aged just 21. The name was changed to Home Bargains in 1995 (although it's still colloquially referred to by its original name throughout the Merseyside area[4]) with accompanying blue and red corporate identity, created by relative (and professional graphic designer) Anton Morris.[3]
Morris started the business by obtaining a bank overdraft, with typical average takings initially reaching around £85 per week, and was estimated in October 2014 to have a personal wealth of £2.05 billion,[5] which, by April 2016, had increased to over £3 billion, making him at that time the second richest man in the North West of England.[6]
Morris, who was reported to have still owned an 89% stake in the business as of 2013, operates the company with his brother Joe.[7] The business has since grown to become one of the largest privately owned companies within the United Kingdom, selling a variety of household items including food, clothing and games to name a few across up to 4,000 product lines.[8][5]
Customer numbers were estimated to be in excess of three million in February 2013, with items sold typically consisting of 70% regular lines and the rest as one-off product lines.[7] The retailer was ranked sixth in a Which? list of 100 Top Stores, making them the highest ranking retailer within the United Kingdom.[8]
Growth
From 1977, annual growth was already strong at 20–25%.[3] They opened their first warehouse in Prescot in 1979. They then moved to the Rocket Warehouse in 1983. Then, in 1994, they moved to another warehouse, Fallows Way.[3] The retailer gained approval in January 2008 to construct new headquarters in Merseyside, which it estimated would create seven hundred jobs at the Axis business park, Croxteth, as it constructed a ten-storey distribution centre and retail training facility.[9]
A £70m distribution centre began construction in October 2013 in Wiltshire, England, as a duplicate of their 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) facility that they had opened at its Liverpool headquarters some years prior, in order that their expansion plans could be maintained.[7]
Business operations
Sales strategies
The strap line of the retailer is "Top Brands, Bottom Prices", with operations director Joe Morris explaining their business model of acquiring stock at the same cost price as the larger supermarkets, but selling them to the public at a cheaper price.[7]
In August 2011, Home Bargains opened a website to enable customers to shop with them online.[10]
Stores and branding
Home Bargains stores have red and blue branding. They can usually be found in major shopping streets, as well as in shopping centres and arcades. Most are centrally located though several are in out of town retail parks. Stores range from small to medium outlets, with the retail park outlets being slightly larger. Store sizes in 2013 were typically between 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) and 25,000 sq ft (2,300 m2).[7]
In January 2009, the retailer acquired fourteen former Woolworths Group stores from the failed chain Woolworths Group.[11] These stores include Cardiff and Port Talbot in Wales. In Fife, Scotland, two former Woolworths stores have been opened in shopping centres in Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy.
Corporate affairs
National expansion
The retailer had aspirations to expand in countries outside of England and Wales in 2007, though owner Tom Morris was keen to ensure such expansion was controlled to avoid the risk of over expansion.[12] The retailer announced in October 2008 that preparations are underway to expand into Scotland for the first time, opening their first store in Rutherglen in December 2008.
By March 2009, the company aimed to have six stores within the area of Glasgow, employing more than two hundred people.[13] In February 2010, the company's £25 million Northern Ireland expansion plan was announced, with plans to have opened up to twenty five stores by 2015, to add to their then portfolio of 190 stores.[14]
Financial performance
The retailer has seen strong sales growth over the past few years, with turnover more than doubling in a four-year period (2011 to 2015).[15]
In 2009, the firm was aiming to be turning over £1bn a year by 2015, having grown the number of its stores to 350, with the potential for six hundred across the United Kingdom.[16] Their turnover exceeded the £1billion mark in 2013, two years earlier than initially anticipated. The retailer aims to reach the £2billion annual turnover mark by 2020.
| Year ending | Turnover (£m) | Profit | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross (£m) | Operating (£m) | Pre-tax (£m) | Net (£m) | ||
| 30 June 2016[15] | 1602.9 | 498.3 | 136.9 | 137.0 | 106.8 |
| 30 June 2015[15] | 1472.4 | 445.8 | 146.7 | 147.1 | 115.1 |
| 30 June 2014[15] | 1277.3 | 377.6 | 124.5 | 124.8 | 95.3 |
| 30 June 2013[15] | 1058.4 | 313.6 | 110.4 | 110.9 | 82.6 |
| 30 June 2012[15] | 914.8 | 254.2 | 84.0 | 84.2 | 59.7 |
| 30 June 2011[15] | 721.4 | 208.1 | 59.8 | 59.5 | 42.5 |
| 30 June 2010[15] | 590.3 | 167.1 | 48.5 | 47.9 | 33.4 |
| 30 June 2009[15] | 481.6 | 136.1 | 43.5 | 42.6 | 29.8 |
Affiliates
Home Bargains is also the supplier of similar discount chain Quality Save, whom it supplies all stock, shop fittings, trolleys and tills.[17]
Sporting ventures
From April 2013 until January 2016, Home Bargains were kit sponsors of National League side Tranmere Rovers in a "six figure" deal, replacing long-term sponsors Wirral Council.[18] The sponsorship ended when Rovers signed a three-year sponsorship deal with B&M Waste Services.[19] Since October 2019, they have been the kit sponsors of League One side Bolton Wanderers.[20] In 2021, Home Bargains signed a three year principal shirt partner deal with Super League club St Helens Rugby League Football Club for the 2022-2024 seasons.
Litigation
Home Bargains was given a fine of over £50,000 in 2014 after a member of staff was killed while on shift in the Dudley store. Staff member Gary Pickering was attempting to unload the delivery when the tail lift on the company owned lorry jammed, as the staff member lent forward to use the controls the tail lift snapped shut trapping his head and breaking his neck. Pickering was not found until a number of hours after the incident when two store managers come into the stores warehouse and found him trapped between the tail lift and the Home Bargains lorry. Home Bargains (T J Morris) was taken to court, pleaded guilty and was given a fine of over £50,000. Poor maintenance was one of the main reasons leading to the death as well as it coming to light during the trail that no staff member across the business had been told about a design feature with tail lifts that will cause them to close if they get stuck on company vehicles. There was no store procedure on this design or how it worked resulting in the company failing to safely train its staff members which in turn resulted in a member of staff being killed. The trial heard how Home Bargains had massively failed their employees with lack of health and safety. The company was told "no staff member expects to go to a store to start there shift to not return home, during the course of the shift all staff members expect to be safe and protected and in this case the company failed, they failed massively"
The retailer was fined over £20,000 in February 2017, after being caught selling phone chargers that risked exploding. The chargers had been imported from China yet had not undergone sufficient safety checks by the retailer, despite Trading Standards having carried out five failed safety checks on the product.
Despite being able to produce a Chinese test certificate indicating that a sample product was safety compliant, Home Bargains subsequentially admitted to three offences of electrical safety through the sale of unsafe chargers during 2015.[21]
In March 2019 Home Bargains was given a fine of over £23,000 for failing numerous trading standards challenge 25 test purchases. Trading Standards carried out the test purchases on 2 different Home Bargains stores and each store failed to ID the test purchaser resulting in a knife being sold to 2 different people under the age of 18. Home Bargains was taken to court and pleaded guilty and was given a fine of over £23,000. One of the test purchases was failed as a result of a store supervisor overriding the cashier's decision to initially refuse the sale when the test purchaser was challenged and failed to produce any ID. As a result of the company's prosecution till systems across the company were updated and new till prompts installed as well as staff training across the company being given a complete overhaul to make sure all staff members were made aware of the consequences of making an illegal sale.
In December 2020 a Home Bargains store at the Wavertree Retail Park was raided just before closing time leaving the 2 cashiers on shift screaming and terrified. Despite the cashiers sounding the checkout panic bell a series of failures by Home Bargains made the situation worse, It was reported by staff on shift that after the panic bell was pressed a member of store management ran to the stores cash office to activate a duress alarm directly to the company's head office, this was initially ignored by the company's loss prevention control room but after the CCTV being checked was then responded to and police and armed response summoned to the store some 5 minutes after the first panic button was pressed resulting in the first police officers not arriving until 11 minutes after the first alarms were activated. Staff members were in shock at how slow and unsafe the company were at responding during this incident. As a result, the company apologised to the staff involved and reviewed its security procedures to make sure this did not happen again.
Home Bargains come under fire once again in October 2022 after a 12-year-old boy was sold 4 boxes of paracetamol in a single transaction in one of its stores. This was published and reported by numerous media outlets and as a result many people called for Home Bargains to rethink its staff training and review its till systems to introduce a pain killer intervention prompt and age restrict pain killers. Home Bargains said an internal investigation had been launched immediately and it was taking the case as the most serious cause for concern.
References
- ^ "Home Bargains - Store Locator". Home Bargains. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
- ^ "About Us". TJ Morris LTD. February 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d McLoughlin, Jamie (6 May 2016). "Home Bargains at 40: The story behind a Merseyside retail phenomenon". Liverpool Echo. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
- ^ Bona, Emilia (8 November 2020). "All the things I wish someone had told me before I moved to Liverpool". Liverpool Echo. Trinity Mirror. Retrieved 8 November 2020.
- ^ a b "Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2014: No. 14 - Tom Morris, Home Bargains". Management Today. 26 October 2014. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ "Home Bargains discount store chief is now worth more than £3BILLION". The Mirror. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e "Home Bargains grasps UK high street shift". Financial Times. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ a b "What is Home Bargains and why can't people wait for it to come to Street?". Somerset Live. 30 January 2017. Archived from the original on 30 January 2017. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
- ^ "700 jobs on the way at Home Bargains' shops HQ". Liverpool Echo. 8 January 2017. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ "TJ Morris – Corporate Homepage".
- ^ Live, Cheshire (17 July 2009). "More ex-Woolworths snapped up in N.Wales". chesterchronicle. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
- ^ "Home Bargains cashes in on downturn as profits surge". Retail Week. 18 September 2008. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
- ^ "Home Bargains moves into Scotland as business continues to boom". Liverpool Daily Post. 22 October 2008. Archived from the original on 11 February 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2008.
- ^ "Home Bargains to pump £25m into N Ireland expansion". The Business Desk. 12 February 2010. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "TJ Morris - Companies House". Companies House. November 2016. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
- ^ "Home Bargains to take over 14 former Woolworths stores". Archived from the original on 5 March 2009. Retrieved 18 April 2009.
- ^ "Why I would like to rebrand discount store Home Bargains". Mighty Mags.
- ^ "Home Bargains announced as Tranmere Rovers new shirt sponsor". Liverpool Echo. 16 April 2013. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
- ^ "Tranmere Announce New Shirt Sponsorship Deal With B&M Waste Services". Tranmere Rovers. 29 January 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2017.
- ^ "Home Bargains Confirmed As New Shirt Sponsor As Club Also Unveils New Kits". Bolton Wanderers. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- ^ Limited, Frontmedia Studio (10 February 2017). "News". tradingstandards.uk. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
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