Administrators for Focus Do it all

Three administrators from management consultants Ernst & Young have been appointed for Focus Do it all, a British DIY retailer, as Focus had hoped for. Trading activities are continuing as usual. Attempts are in the meantime being made to find buyers for the company, or parts of it. Kingfisher is acquiring up to 31 DIY locations for £ 23 mio in cash. These stores are to remain open under their Focus banner until mid-July, when they will be handed over to B&Q, a Kingfisher subsidiary. After refurbishment it is planned to reopen them as B&Q stores before the end of the year. Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher’s group chief executive, described the purchase as “a good opportunity for us to expand B&Q into carefully targeted UK locations where we currently have no store representation.”