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. In 1995, Wickes bought the six Bay6 stores from Great Mills' parent company, RMC. Four were already trading, and two were under construction.

An important step forward for the company came in 1992, with the introduction of a 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 a week.

In 1994, four of the worst performing Great Mills stores were rebranded 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.[8] Openings for Great Mills in Colne, as well as Halfords, were planned by February 1997, but never happened for unknown reasons.[9]

To further reduce distribution costs, a 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. In May 1998, Great Mills appointed Jill Keen, from Asda, to be the new marketing director. She took over from Peter Bastin.[10]

RMC Group considered selling Great Mills in March 2000, as Peter Young, chief executive, said the business “is not a core part of what we do”.[11] In July 2000, Focus Do It All emerged as the most likely buyer for Great Mills, as the chain was put up for sale.[12] In December 2000, Focus bought out Great Mills. The stores were all externally rebranded, though some kept parts of the interior branding of Great Mills.[13] Focus originally intended to acquire Homebase, but decided to instead acquire Great Mills.[14]

In May 2011, Focus DIY entered administration. 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.[15] 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 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. In January 2015, Great Mills, Paulton, was purchased by Wickes, which was owned by Focus DIY, from September 2000 until December 2004, being sold to Travis Perkins.[16]

The brand of Great Mills was purchased in November 2017, and relaunched, as an online retail store.[17]