Wickes Plans 300 UK Stores, 2,000 New Jobs

Wickes, the British DIY retailer, announced plans Tuesday to expand its network to 300 stores across the United Kingdom, a move expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs as the company accelerates investments in new locations and store refreshes.

The expansion builds on robust financial performance for the year ended December 27, 2025. Wickes reported underlying pretax profits of 49.9 million pounds, a 14.4 percent increase from the previous year, surpassing analyst expectations of 48.2 million pounds. Total revenue rose 5.9 percent to 1.64 billion pounds, driven by volume growth in retail and design-and-installation services. Statutory pretax profits more than doubled to 48.7 million pounds from 23.2 million pounds a year earlier. The company ended the period with net cash of 91.7 million pounds after returning 44.8 million pounds to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. Wickes also unveiled a new 10 million pound share buyback program for 2026.

In 2025, Wickes opened five new stores, four of which were former Homebase sites, while closing three others. It refitted two locations and refreshed nine more, bringing the total to 11 upgrades. The company now operates...