Great Mills (DIY)

Great Mills (storefront)

Originally known as Clapton Building Supplies, the store was opened in 1972 by Tony Blackburn, an unwell Dulux Dog and a staff of four.[6] The store managed a modest turnover of £50,000 but within six months, the turnover had doubled.[7]

In the beginning of the 1990s, Great Mills launched Bay6 (Basics). These stores were identical in size, look and layout to Wickes. Wickes bought the six Bay6 stores in 1995 from Great Mills' parent company, RMC. Four were already trading, and two were under construction.[8]

An important step forward for the company came in 1992, with the introduction of a new central distribution method of delivering products to its stores. This saved many motorway miles as deliveries were co ordinated, rather than having hundreds of suppliers delivering to the same store each day.

By 2000, over 70% of the product range was delivered by the Great Mills fleet two or three times weekly.

Four of the worst performing Great Mills stores were rebranded in 1994 into the chain No Frills DIY. These stores were St. Austell, Salisbury, and Northallerton. Other than external signage saying No Frills, the interior of the stores followed no corporate planning as the concept was to sell anything and everything, in an attempt to make the previous loss making store profitable again.

Only St. Austell got close to being in profit before the entire chain was shutdown with the sale of Great Mills. Whilst none of the stores got into profit before closure, all four did significantly reduce the losses over their previous incarnations as Great Mills.[9] Openings for Great Mills in Colne as well as Halfords were planned by February 1997, but never happened for unknown reasons.[10]

To further reduce distribution costs the new Central Distribution Centre was opened in July 1997. The purpose built development was fully automated and operated computer systems to monitor stock control, and to make sure deliveries were made on time to stores. Great Mills appointed Jill Keen from Asda in May 1998 to be the new marketing director. She took over from Peter Bastin.[11] The store on the Middlebrook Retail Park in Bolton opened in October 1999, creating more than forty jobs for the area.[12]

RMC Group considered selling Great Mills in March 2000, as chief executive Peter Young said the business “is not a core part of what we do”.[13] Focus Do It All emerged as the most likely buyer for Great Mills in July 2000 as the chain was put up for sale.[14] Focus bought out Great Mills in December 2000. The stores were all externally rebranded, though some kept parts of the interior branding of Great Mills.[15] Focus originally intended to acquire Homebase, but decided to instead acquire Great Mills.[16]

Focus DIY entered administration in May 2011.[17] Some of the Focus branded former stores of Great Mills were sold off to other retailers, while others were left empty. The original flagship store of Great Mills in Paulton stood empty since the closure until June 2015, when work began to transform it to Wickes, which opened in October 2015.[18] Offices opposite the original store served as the headquarters for the company of Great Mills, but stood largely empty after the acquisition by Focus.

The company had almost 100 stores in the United Kingdom in July 2000 by the time of the proposed sale, with one new store in Nantwich opening the following month.[19][20]

The former offices were mainly used as storage for equipment for Focus DIY, and also as the call centre for the same company. The office building is now part of the Somer Valley Enterprise Park. Great Mills Paulton was purchased by Wickes in January 2015, which was owned by Focus DIY from September 2000 until December 2004, before being sold to Travis Perkins.[21]

The brand Great Mills was purchased in November 2017 and relaunched as an online retail store.[22]