Wickes

The Wickes name goes as far back as 1854, when Henry Dunn Wickes and his brother started a modest operation in the local lumber business in Michigan, USA.

Wickes as we recognise it today really started in the 1950s American property boom, with the creation of a one-stop-shop selling builders a full range of construction products at prices often lower than local yards and merchants…

Wickes in the UK

In 1972 the first UK Wickes was opened in Whitefield, Manchester. It was an imaginative new concept - using a traditional DIY store model to sell to the trade - and it made Wickes the first fixed-price builders merchant in the UK.

Our first customers (savvy tradesmen and a few keen DIYers) found they could now get all the products they needed to complete entire projects from a single store, at lower prices than other merchants.

Owning the brand

Increasing our range of own-brand products meant we could closely control the supply and manufacturing process, enabling us to offer a quality range of products at consistently low prices. By the early 90s, we were more or less completely own-brand. In recent years, we’ve expanded our range to include trusted brands such as Dulux, Bosch and Makita, giving our customers even better choice.

Building trust

The performance of our products is key to building trust with our customers. The Wickes Quality Assurance Team travels thousands of miles each year to check the production quality of our key suppliers, and we independently test our own-brand products against the market leaders, checking that each one is up to the job. This ensures that when customers buy our products they can be confident they are getting the best value for money.