Food retailer J Sainsbury has sold its Homebase DIY division for £969 million sterling (€1.06 billion), with existing stores going to Schroder Ventures and development sites to Kingfisher, owner of rival B&Q.

Homebase has three outlets in Dublin and Schroder has not formulated "any specific plans for them", said Mr Charles Sherwood, a Schroder partner. Schroder said it would attempt to take the average size of Homebase stores up to 80,000 sq ft from 35,000. It said it wanted to develop Homebase's strengths at the softer end of the home improvement market. The change of ownership is not expected to affect domestic operators. Mr Leo Martin, group chief executive of Heiton, the builders' providers and Atlantic Homecare group, said the sale of Homebase had been pretty well flagged and reflected the consolidation that was taking place in the industry. Mr Norman Kilroy, managing director of Grafton Group, the Woodies DIY company, said such a big store could affect smaller operators but would not have competitive implications for the larger companies.