Toolstation Limited is a multi-channel retailer of tools and building materials. It has more than 500 branches in the UK, 90 in the Netherlands, 23 in France and 19 in Belgium. It was bought by

Travis Perkins Travis Perkins plc is a British builders' merchant and home improvement retailer with head offices based in Northampton. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Through its Toolstation subsidiary, ...

in 2014. The managing director is Angela Rushforth.

History

Toolstation was formed in February 2002 by Mark Goddard-Watts, one of the founding family members of

Screwfix Direct Screwfix Direct Limited, trading as Screwfix, is a retailer of trade tools, accessories and hardware products based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 as the Woodscrew Supply Company, the company was acquired in July 1999 by Kingfisher plc, ...

. In 2012 Goddard-Watts sold his shares to Travis Perkins plc. A distribution centre in

Middleton, Greater Manchester Middleton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, England, on the River Irk. It is southwest of Rochdale and northeast of Manchester. Middleton had a population of 42,972 at the 2011 Census. It lies on the nort ...

opened in August 2018. In 2019 Toolstation opened their 400th store, in Balham. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the United Kingdom, Toolstation remained open to provide its essential products to the trade and the

general public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

. During the initial stages of the pandemic, it adopted a click and collect based retail operation in the interest of customer and colleague safety, however this was later scrapped as the

pandemic prevention Pandemic prevention is the organization and management of preventive measures against pandemics. Those include measures to reduce causes of new infectious diseases and measures to prevent outbreaks and epidemics from becoming pandemics. It is not ...

restrictions were eased by the

Government of the United Kingdom His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. Click and Collect is still available at all Toolstation sites and is the preferred method of purchasing by many. In May 2023 Toolstation closed a distribution centre in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. The town had a population of 41,276 at the 2021 census. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies along both sid ...

and employees there went on to work at the

Hinkley Point C nuclear power station Hinkley Point C nuclear power station (HPC) is a two-unit, 3,200MWe EPR nuclear power station under construction in Somerset, England. Hinckley was one of eight possible sites announced by the British government in 2010, and in November 2012 ...

. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65629355 Roughly 20% of Travis Perkins revenue comes from Toolstation. Up to March 2024, Toolstation had continued to grow its UK market share, opening 163 new Toolstation branches between 2020 and 2022, and adding seven more in 2023. However, its mainland Europe stores were doing less well, and Travis Perkins announced Toolstation was quitting France and reviewing its operations in Netherlands and Belgium. Toolstation France grew sales by 29% in 2023 but losses increased to £18m and it expected to lose another £20m in 2024. Operations in the Netherlands business were forecast to reach break-even by 2025 with Belgium forecast to break-even by 2028.

References

Companies based in Bridgwater British companies established in 2003 Retail companies established in 2003 Home improvement companies of the United Kingdom 2014 mergers and acquisitions {{UK-corp-stub