Home Retail Group

Home Retail Group plc (LSE: HOME) is one of the UK's leading home and general merchandise retailers. It is the parent company of Argos, Homebase and Habitat. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

History

GUS plc acquired Argos in 1998 and combined it with its mail order business to form Argos Retail Group ('ARG') in 2000. It went on to acquire Homebase in 2002, bringing it into ARG. In 2005, GUS bought 33 Index stores, which were subsequently converted to the Argos format. ARG was renamed Home Retail Group upon its 2006 demerger from GUS. Shares in Home Retail Group were traded on the London Stock Exchange as from 11 October 2006. In 2007, Home Retail Group bought 27 stores from Focus DIY and converted them to the Homebase format. In 2011, the Group bought the exclusive rights to the Habitat brand, its brand designs and intellectual property in the United Kingdom and Ireland, along with three stores in London and its website.