Editing B&Q (section)

===1980s: Buyout and further expansion===
B&Q grew rapidly through a combination of mergers, acquisitions and expansions, such as the acquisition of a [[Hampshire]] based company Dodge City at the beginning of the 1980s. The chain was itself acquired by the [[F. W. Woolworth Company]] for £16.8&nbsp;million at the beginning of the 1980s, coinciding with Quayle, who by that time had a personal wealth of £4&nbsp;million, selling his share.<ref name="1969_foundation"/> This would result, for a time, in B&Q being an indirect sister company to [[Foot Locker]], another F. W. Woolworth subsidiary.

Two years later, F. W. Woolworth's United Kingdom [[subsidiary]] ([[Woolworths (United Kingdom)|Woolworths Group]]) and B&Q were purchased by Paternoster Stores, which became [[Kingfisher plc]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kingfisher.com/index.asp?PageID=107&subsection=mainnews&Year=2002&NewsID=314 |title=Kingfisher plc : Home – Investors – Press releases |publisher=Kingfisher.com |date=30 October 2002 |access-date=29 April 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310094215/http://www.kingfisher.com/index.asp?PageID=107&subsection=mainnews&Year=2002&NewsID=314 |archive-date=10 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and is still B&Q's parent company {{As of|2023|lc=y}}.<ref>{{cite web | title=Our retail banners | publisher=Kingfisher Corporate | url=https://www.kingfisher.com/en/about-us/what-we-do/brands.html | access-date=18 February 2023}}</ref>

B&Q developed two new trading formats: HomeCentres, retailing furniture, bathrooms, soft furniture, flooring and lighting; and AutoCentres, being similar to a [[Halfords]], the first launch taking place at [[Cribbs Causeway]], [[Bristol]], at the end of the 1980s. The concept being to have a HomeCentre, AutoCentre and DIY Superstore with one communal car park.

The forays into these new markets were relatively short lived, and the various sites were sold on a couple of years later. The AutoCentres becoming in the main 'Charlie Browns', the HomeCentres being sold off individually.