The Times of London has reported that the two largest housing supplies retailers in the U.S., The Home Depot Inc. (Atlanta) and Lowe's Cos. Inc. (Mooresville, N.C.), might be interested in acquiring Focus (DIY) Ltd. (Crewe, U.K.), the third largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, in auction.
Focus, a 235-store chain, is heavily in debt and attempting to avoid bankruptcy. It is currently owned by British private equity firms Duke Street and Apax. A deal could be signed this week that would avoid auctioning off Focus in pieces. A projected final auction price for the Focus chain has not been disclosed.
Home Depot already operates about 220 stores in Canada, Mexico and China. Lowe's will have its first few stores open and running in Canada by the second half of 2007 and plans to open stores in Mexico by 2009.
Both retailers declined comment about speculation of expanding into Europe. Both said, in e-mail messages to the Times, that they do not comment on “rumors.”