Wickes... Toolstation?

[HandyAndy]

So I popped into my local Wickes today to buy some bent timber and found there was a Toolstation counter in there! It could have been there for months and I never noticed... are Wickes and Toolstation affiliated in some way? Can't find anything on the web about it. Competing with the B&Q / Screwfix / Tradepoint combo I guess...

:?:

 

[marcros]

Yes and Travis Perkins too. I didn't know that there were implant branches in wickes but it makes sense.

 

[HandyAndy]

D'oh... http://www.retailgazette.co.uk/articles ... oolstation

Would have helped if I searched for Toolstation and not Toolstop (homer)

Carry on...

 

[Steve Maskery]

That's interesting. I have both TP and Wickes nearby, rarely visit either. But a TS would be quite attractive.

 

[carlb40]

Yes there was a thread on this earlier this year i think. Started off about the owner selling off TS after making millions previously selling off screwfix lol

 

[Steve Maskery]

I wish I had his entrepreneurship.
S

 

[Baldhead]

I think the original owner of Screwfix sold out to B&Q, according to my SIL (ex head office employee of B&Q) they were desperate for an internet outlet, one of the sons of the Screwfix owner then started Toolstation, once they were established he sold out to Travis Perkins who owned Wickes (or vice versa). One of the girls at Toolstation told me earlier this year that they were going to open counters in Wickes. I use Toolstation a lot simply because P&P is free on orders over £10.

Baldhead

 

[StevieB]

Yup, Huntingdon Wickes has a toolstation counter in it. Across the road is a Screwfix, 300 yds up the road is a small B&Q and 50 yds down the road is a TP I find Screwfix tend to be cheapest of the lot, B&Q quite expensive and TP just take the p*ss with their prices - they are always the last port of call. Dunno if they only want trade or what, but absolutely stupid prices for even bog standard stuff.

Steve

 

[scrimper]

Mark Goddard-Watts started both Screwfix and Toolstation, Travis Perkins boght a 30% stake of TS in 2008 and bought the rest in 2012. I wonder if he will now start up another company? I reckon that if I had made the reported £60million that Kingfisher paid him for Screwfix in 2000 I would retire and spend my life taking it a bit easy.

I actually prefer Toolstation to Screwfix and spend quite a lot with them.

 

[Silas Gull]

It's got our name on it - W i i i c k e s....

 

[HandyAndy]

B&Q with a Tradepoint card seems to essentially be Screwfix... plus all the big stuff you can normally get at B&Q but at better prices... for some of it. Screwfix is closer to me though so I tend to use that. Now that there's a Toostation in Wickes though does that mean they'll have to align all the Wickes prices with the Toolstation? There's a lot over overlap in their products! Do Toolstation sell straight wood? :wink:

 

[scrimper]

B&Q with a Tradepoint card seems to essentially be Screwfix... plus all the big stuff you can normally get at B&Q but at better prices... for some of it. Screwfix is closer to me though so I tend to use that. Now that there's a Toostation in Wickes though does that mean they'll have to align all the Wickes prices with the Toolstation? There's a lot over overlap in their products! Do Toolstation sell straight wood? :wink:

Indeed Toolstation prices are in most cases a lot lower than Wickes prices so it seems odd that in a Wickes store with a Toolstation 'in house' Wickes customers will have a choice on a lower price if they take the time to check. I imagine that Wickes are putting TS in store where they don't have a branch nearby?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I have a Toolstation, a B&Q, a Wickes and a Screwfix within ten miles. With an odd exception, there are three privately owned places that are better.

 

[Graham Orm]

Tool Station have been in my local Wickes for a couple of months, they had to rearrange the whole store. Great idea though.

 

[doorframe]

Now that there's a Toostation in Wickes though does that mean they'll have to align all the Wickes prices with the Toolstation? There's a lot over overlap in their products! Do Toolstation sell straight wood? :wink:

I wish TS did sell wood, and straight would be an added bonus. Wickes just seem to keep inching up the prices. I get through loads of 2.4m CLS. It wasn't that long ago it was £1.64 a length. It's now up to £3+. If you buy 20+ lengths you get 20% off. It's not always advertised and the girl at the till has to be reminded. Mind you, Homebase have CLS at £9.95 per length!

Recently built another outhouse (read 'big shed'), and went to Wickes as usual for the felt and adhesive. Prices up about 20% over this year. Popped into Homebase expecting the worst and got everything I needed for about 60% of Wickes price.

Don't go near TP and the like anymore as they seem to just make the prices up at the time, and I know it's the 'joe public' customers who subsidize the prices for the traders.

 

[marcros]

i think that is the case with all of the big merchants now. I went to Jewson, who had always been reasonable for bits and bobs, and it cost a small fortune for a piece of waste pipe and a broom handle. I certainly shall not be going back there.