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On Tuesday 27th February, it will be 100 days to the Wesfarmers Strategy Briefing on Thursday 7th June 2018. In this latest article Steve examines what are the 'self-induced' errors made at Homebase and what if anything can be done to save the Homebase business.

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News.com.au - Following an interview between Steve Collinge and journalist Benedict Brook from the Australian news website, the following article was published on 7th February 2018. 

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In his lastest opinion piece, Steve rues the demise of Changing Rooms and the fact that since the end of the successful series in August 2004, there has been nothing to provide consumers with the ideas, the inspiration and the much needed help and support to tackle do it yourself tasks around their home.

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Steve gets out his crystal ball and provides a home improvement retailer by retailer guide to the initiatives, developments and challenges that we’re likely to live through in the year ahead. 

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The Kingfisher unified range looks great on shelf, but it seems wrong that well known UK brands are being marginalised in favour of Kingfisher exclusive brands such as Dial, limiting consumer choice. "The speed with which B&Q has exited well-known brands, has only been matched by the speed with which Wickes has embraced them".

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Steve visits the first smaller Bunnings (not Warehouse) conversion of the Homebase in Bicester and he really isn't impressed - "What they’ve created here is not a scaled down Bunnings, it's a new, ugly and totally unproven, frankenstein of a format that doesn’t exist anywhere in the world".

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Having just received €60m further investment to grow their business in the UK, Steve goes in search of Mano Mano to find out more about them and what their intentions are for the UK market.

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In this opinion piece, Steve debates whether the new Bunnings Warehouse in Worle (near Weston-super-mare) really is the best looking DIY store in the country. He also calls Wickes boring and asks why Kingfisher haven't dumped TradePoint long ago and replaced them with a Screwfix in every B&Q Warehouse. 

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Over the last six weeks, like a phoenix, the Bunnings Warehouse in Milton Keynes has gradually emerged from the flames and ashes that once was a Homebase store on Snowdon Drive. The transformation is so complete, that it's hard to believe this ever was a Homebase in the first place and the green and orange branding, matching cushions and 15% off weekends are already a distant memory.

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The year 2017 set the record for the most retail store closures in the US, at over 9,000 shops. In this article Steve looks into the performance of Home Depot, whose digital transformation appears to have insulated them from the impact of online shopping. With UK online penetration of home improvement purchases standing at a very low 5.5%and with the UK Home Improvement retailers doing little to follow the Home Depot example, is our own retail armageddon just around the corner.

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Using the robust retail pricing data that we obtain and crunch from home improvement stores every day, Insight DIY completed the first price basket containing identical and directly comparable branded and own brand products across B&Q, Homebase, Wickes, Wilko and now Bunnings. In this article Steve highlights how Bunnings have blown away the competition, undercutting competitors on price on many of the key branded decorative lines.

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Steve visits B&Q's first 'City' store, located in an old Post Office building on Holloway Road in London and provides his unique perspective on the range, prices and services  they've chosen for the smallest store in their estate. 

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