Tycoon Chris Dawson - one of the nation's wealthiest men - has already used his huge fortune to save Wilko after it collapsed into administration.
Full list of Homebase stores as 49 sites remain at risk of being closedHe is the retail magnet dubbed the 'Del Boy Billionaire', who founded discount chain The Range, and is now seemingly on a one-man mission to rescue some of Britain's top chains from financial oblivion.
Dawson, who left school unable to read or write, opened his first The Range shop in Plymouth in 1989. But when he first became a billionaire, he cried, admitting he felt 'frightened, lonely and hollow', telling the Mail in 2014: 'I thought this is the end, the show is over, what do I do for an encore? It's nice, but I am no happier being a billionaire.'
And it's a moniker Dawson is proud of; he spent more than £30,000 on a personalised 'DE11BOY' numberplate that has adorned his £250,000 Rolls Royce and more recently his luxury £265,000 Lamborghini. Dawson left school at just 15 with no qualifications - but he had a sharp business sense and a knack for hard graft that soon saw him venturing into the world of retail.
His father was a sailor in the Royal Navy, and often drunk when at home. His mother would cry when there was no coal in the bunker and her three sons said they were cold. Mr Dawson started life on the market stall in Plymouth and used to sell upcycled furniture and scrap metal to puntersMr Dawson is now at the helm of 213 chains nationwide and visits ten per day in his personalised helicopter He loved his time at the markets, where he was well known across several counties.
His family work for the company; his wife and daughter as buyers, his son on shop refits. He says that they all work excessive hours and 'only go home to sleep'. No one, however, works quite as hard as Chris. 'My paranoia is not maximising every day. I would hate to think there was an inch left in anything, I would hate to think that I had missed 50 pence.'And he is not afraid of getting into a scrap; the middle finger on his right hand is missing, following a fight 20 years ago with someone who owed him money. The finger somehow became poisoned, and at one stage doctors thought they might have to amputate his whole arm.
News of the latest deal came just hours after Homebase owners Hilco, who bought the firm for a token £1 in 2018, announced yesterday morning it was appointing insolvency experts after reporting an £84.2 million loss last year. Hilco Capital began looking at ways to cut costs earlier this year, blaming overly cautious consumers not splashing out on DIY projects.
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