£300m deal for king of DIY

THE KING of DIY is revealed as Bill Archer, who is poised to make a fortune from the flotation of two of the biggest names in the business. The former chairman of Brighton & Hove Albion football club is set to become one of Britain's richest men through the £1.4bn flotation of his DIY business Focus Wickes, which owns the Do It All and Focus chains.

Archer, who headed the club during the mid-Nineties, will make a paper fortune of about £300m from the planned summer listing of the company. It is Britain's second biggest DIY group.

Archer, who owns around 20% of the company, has built it up over the past 14 years, starting with a small chain called Choice with six shops. His break into the big time came four years ago when he bought the Do It All chain from Boots. Last year he bought the Wickes hardware chain for £289m, as well as a smaller DIY chain called Great Mills. The flotation is also likely to mean huge personal fortunes for finance director Geoff Wilson and partners at the Duke Street Capital venture capital firm which financed the rapid expansion of the business.

Archer, who is executive chairman of Focus Wickes, said: 'The acquisition of Wickes and Great Mills in 2000 established Focus Wickes as one of the UK's largest DIY retailers.'

Last year Focus had sales of almost £1.5bn and made operating profits of £106m. The DIY market has enjoyed a huge boom in recent years with UK sales growing at around 6% a year to the current level of about £12.2bn annually.

At least one other major DIY chain, Homebase, is also planning a stock market flotation. News of Archer's fortune will raise few cheers at the home of Brighton football club. He was in charge of the now-resurgent Seagulls during a particularly traumatic phase in its history when it only just escaped relegation from the Football League.