Description
Home Bargains is a British variety store chain founded in 1976 by Tom Morris in Liverpool, England, as Home and Bargain. It is the trading name of TJ Morris Ltd.
History
The retailer was founded by owner Tom Morris in 1976 as a single store called Home and Bargain in Old Swan, Liverpool when he was aged 21. The name was changed to Home Bargains in 1995, but is still colloquially referred to by its original name in the Merseyside area.
Morris, who was reported to have still owned an 89% stake in the business as of 2013, operates the company with his brother Joe. The business has since grown to become one of the largest privately owned companies within the United Kingdom, selling a variety of household items including food, clothing and games.
Customer numbers were estimated to be in excess of three million in February 2013, with items sold typically consisting of 70% regular lines and the rest as one-off product lines. The retailer was ranked sixth in a Which? list of 100 Top Stores, making them the highest ranking retailer within the United Kingdom.
Growth
From 1977, annual growth was around 20–25%. They opened their first warehouse in Prescot in 1979. They then moved to the Rocket Warehouse in 1983. Then, in 1994, they moved to another warehouse, Fallows Way. The retailer gained approval in January 2008 to construct new headquarters in Merseyside, which it estimated would create seven hundred jobs at the Axis business park, Croxteth, as it constructed a ten-storey distribution centre and retail training facility.
A £70m distribution centre began construction in October 2013 in Wiltshire, England, as a duplicate of their 700,000 sq ft (65,000 m2) facility that they had opened at its Liverpool headquarters some years prior, in order that their expansion plans could be maintained.
In January 2023, Home Bargains announced that the company had purchased rival discount retailer Quality Save for an undisclosed amount. The purchase came after Quality Save reported it had made a loss of more than £64,000 for the 12 months, compared to a prior £1.3m profit the year before despite having an increase of £3.7 million turnover, all Quality Save stores will convert to the Home Bargains name and brand.
