Two Homebase stores in Northern Ireland will reopen within weeks as part of The Range’s deal to buy dozens of sites out of administration.
The Homebase stores at Bangor’s Balloo Retail Park, which closed for the final time on Sunday, will be relaunched on April 4.
It’s understood all staff working at the DIY store will keep their jobs.
CDS (Superstores International), which trades as The Range, is also believed to have acquired the Homebase site on Cookstown’s Orritor Road.
The DIY superstore is due to trade as Homebase for the final time today (Wednesday).
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The opening date for The Range’s first store in Co Tyrone has not been confirmed, but it’s expected to launch during April.
The Range is already recruiting additional staff for its new Cookstown site, located next to the town’s Tesco and M&S stores.
It will bring the fast-growing discount retailer’s Northern Ireland portfolio to 11.
The Range opened its first store in the north at Ballymena’s Larne Road Link in 2016.
The Plymouth-headquartered CDS Group swooped for 70 Homebase sites in total last November, in a move that secured around 1,600 jobs across the UK.
But the list of 70 stores did not include the Homebase sites in Antrim, Craigavon or Belfast’s Galwally and Boucher Road.
All four stores closed last month, with staff given around two weeks’ notice.
The Irish News revealed last month that grocery retailer Lidl has bought the Galwally site, with plans to develop a new south Belfast supermarket.
Rival grocer Sainsbury’s moved last summer to acquire the Homebase sites in Omagh and Derry, three months before the DIY retailer’s collapse into administration.
The Homebase store at the Crescent Link Retail Park will also today, with the Omagh site expected to close this week.
The Crescent Link store was yesterday advertising Homebase trolleys for sale on Facebook.
CDS has also acquired Homebase assets across the border, including two sites in Dublin, which are due to open this month in Nutgrove and Santry.
The Range is also set to take over Homebase sites in Portlaoise and Sligo.
The Co Laois store is due to launch on April 11, with recruitment ongoing for the Sligo Retail Park site.
B&Q has already snapped up three former Homebase sites in the Republic in Letterkenny, Navan and Waterford.
Founded by Chris Dawson in 1989, The Range originated as an open-air market stall in Plymouth before transferring to a ‘bricks-and-mortar’ operation in 1997.
Alongside its deal to buy dozens of Homebase sites, the retail group bought the Wilko high street brand out of administration in 2023.
CDS now has around 260 sites across the UK and Ireland and remains a privately held business owned by billionaire Dawson.
