Bunnings is the leading home improvement and outdoor living retailer in Australia and New Zealand and acquired Homebase in February 2016, making it the second largest DIY chain in the UK.

The pilot store in St Albans, on the site of the former Homebase store, is the first step towards rolling out the Bunnings Warehouse format in the UK. Three further pilot stores will open by summer 2017 and the company, part of Australia’s Wesfarmers Group, plans to transform all 270 Homebase stores over the next three to five years.

The grand opening was attended by former England Rugby Union scrum-half, Kyran Bracken, and featured a Bunnings ‘Sausage Sizzle’. This is a community event that invites local groups to take over giant barbecues located outside the store and raise money for charity.

Peter ‘PJ’ Davis, managing director of Bunnings UK and Ireland, hosted the first Sausage Sizzle in the UK, cooking breakfast for team members.

He said: “It’s great to be able to give people a taste of what Bunnings is all about. Our policy is to offer customers the lowest prices, the widest range and best service, and hopefully our first pilot store demonstrates that.”

The St. Albans store is a massive 67,000 square feet and employs 68 people, almost double the workforce of the previous Homebase store. There is also a 19,000 square feet garden centre and a dedicated DIY workshop area, where customers can learn skills from wallpaper hanging to tile cutting, as well as a café and indoor children’s soft play area.

The store stocks more than 30,000 different home and garden lines, including an expanded range of 3M products such as Scotch® DIY tapes, SandBlaster™ Sandpaper Sheets, personal safety equipment and Command™ hanging solutions.

Bunnings takes a different approach to merchandising to most DIY stores in the UK, displaying products by task rather than brands so that customers can easily find what they need for the task in hand.

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