Powerhouse (shop)

Powerhouse was a United Kingdom electrical goods retail chain which went into administration in 2003 and finally entered receivership in August 2006. At one time it was the third largest trader in the UK electrical goods market.

Powerhouse was born in 1992 from a management buyout of the retail arms of Southern Electric, Midlands Electricity and Eastern Electricity. The head office was based in Bicester. In an attempt to differentiate themselves in the market they positioned themselves as 'local experts' with each stores main sign bearing the towns name. To fill gaps in their product lineup many stores had concessions for Time Computers and their short-lived mobile phone arm Time Talk. There was also a close relationship with Sony - all stores up until the PRG buyout had 'Sony In-Store' sections where Sony products were isolated on backlit gondolas. nPower were also partners, with Powerhouse acting on their behalf to sign up new customers. This was a sound theory, as Powerhouse's strengths were in the MDA sectors and these deals helped their offering look competitive. However, Time Computers was not in good shape. Time Talk barely lasted 12 months. All Time concessions had closed by 2002 but were not officially refurbished. It was left to the individual store to best use the space as they saw fit.

Powerhouse initially traded strongly and bought out the Scottish Power retail outlets in an attempt to widen their footprint. Very little effort was put into refurbishing the 'jock shops' and the Scottish Power logo could often still be seen etched into the glass in the former surround sound and Hifi demo areas. Additionally, this led to some towns having more than one Powerhouse store (e.g. Nottingham).

At its peak, Powerhouse had 220 stores in 2000. In August 2003 following a very poor peak 2002 80 stores were immediately closed. The company continued to trade for two weeks while looking for a buyer. At the end of the two weeks the company went into administration.

The Pacific Retail Group from New Zealand purchased the leases and assets of Powerhouse. They evaluated the entire store portfolio and opened PRG Powerhouse with 180 stores (some of them having ) been closed two weeks previously. Unfortunately, due to a desire to keep costs low, no signage was changed and only small notices informed customers that the new firm was not liable for any items customers had paid for and not received from the former company. As a gesture of goodwill, they honoured the small item replacement warranty in-store. Large item warranty claims were handled by the underwriters. This initially led to a great deal of difficulty for in-store staff as angry customers struggled to get their faulty goods replaced. Internally the stores went through a minor refit, mainly to remove the Sony in-store branding and to better focus on the growing trend of flatscreen TV's.

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