British home furnishings company Dunelm is entering the Irish market through the acquisition of Homefocus Group Ireland.
Trading as Home Focus at Hickeys, the company has 13 stores across the country, including six in Dublin. It has a workforce of about 140 people.
The price of the acquisition has not yet been announced.
Dunelm, which sells items ranging from bedding, sofas, and chairs to garden furniture, as well as kitchen essentials like cutlery and dinner sets, said the acquisition was an attractive opportunity to connect with more customers by entering a new geography, with a homewares market of more than £1 billion.
It said it sees potential to offer a broader range of products in the Home Focus stores, in line with the group’s existing smaller format stores in the UK, giving customers more choice and a more comprehensive offer for the home.
It said it also sees opportunity to introduce a more comprehensive online proposition and, over time, will assess new store opportunities across the country.
Ian Donnelly, Managing Director of Home Focus, said that with around 80 years in business, the company has been looking for a new custodian to take Home Focus into its next chapter.
“Dunelm immediately struck us as having a clear cultural fit, with a strong team guided by sound values and focused on investing for long-term growth,” he said.
“We’re confident that Dunelm’s experience as a multi-channel retailer, together with its ability to offer a wider assortment of products across multiple home categories, will offer both our colleagues and customers an even better proposition as we move forward,” he added.
Nick Wilkinson, CEO of Dunelm, said the company have found a high-quality and complementary business in Home Focus, with a shared heritage in home textiles and strong values which stem from family ownership.
“We see a clear opportunity to introduce more choice and value into the offer which Home Focus has built for its customers. With an established national store footprint and expertise in mutual growth areas like Made to Measure, we’re confident that Home Focus will help us to continue unlocking our full potential,” he said.