Former Asda boss Andy Bond is upping his assault on the UK’s discounter market with the opening of the first store in a new chain called GHM! on Tuesday.
The clothing, homewares and groceries chain, whose three letters stand for Guess How Much!, will kick off in Hinckley, Leicestershire, with plans for at least five outlets by the end of the year. The second will open on the Isle of Sheppey, off the coast of Kent, next week.
The new chain, which is run by Koray Gul, a former Asda executive, will include clothing areas from Pep & Co, the chain that Bond launched nearly a year ago which now has 50 stores.
Both are backed with investment from South African entrepreneur Christo Wiese’s retail group Pepkor, now part of the Steinhoff group which owns stakes in New Look, Iceland, furnishings stores Bensons and Harveys.
Bond, who left Asda six years ago, has secured £10m of funding from Pepkor to back GHM! on top of the £20m the group is ploughing into Pep & Co as it battles for a slice of the UK’s fast-growing discount market.
“We have got high hopes for GHM,” says Bond. “It is a bit different to other discount businesses as it allows a mum with kids to do a much broader range of shopping to a pound store or the likes of B&M.”
First look at the new GHM store opening in Hinckley this Tuesday.
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Photo credit: J. Low. pic.twitter.com/cgbKmwVX9m
The stores, between 8,000 and 10,000 sq ft, will enter a highly competitive market in which the likes of B&M, Home Bargains and Poundstretcher are all expanding. Meanwhile, many high street retailers are under pressure from the rise in online shopping and a switch away from buying clothes and homewares towards holidays, eating out and technology.
The demise of BHS, the low-end department store, last week has been partly blamed on its failure to keep up with shoppers’ changing demands.
Bond said: “Times are changing and sadly some brands become out of date. It is a very sad day for employees of the business.” But he added: “I don’t think the high street’s days are numbered at all. I do think it’s a time of significant change of which online is a formidable force but there will forever be an opportunity to have a national chain of stores with the right sort of merchandise.”
Despite a slowdown in the pace of growth of discounter grocers Aldi and Lidl and some consolidation among general merchandise chains – with the merger of Poundland and 99p Stores – Bond says the growth of discount chains in the UK has not run its course.
“Discounting continues to grow and there is an opportunity to grow it further,” he says. If we opened a business that looked exactly like some others then I agree we would struggle but our target is mums with kids, offering something different including clothing and detailed ranges specifically targeted at them.”
Pep & Co, which opened its first store in Kettering in July last year, is aiming to open 15 more stores this year as it takes on the likes of Primark with supermarket-style clothing on the high street.
“I’m very pleased with progress. Starting up businesses is hard yards. But sometimes it’s the right thing to do when you see a gap in the market and both Pep & Co and GHM fill a gap,” Bond says.
