Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
Focus DIY in Gillingham, ceased trading. In December 2011, the brand was bought by the Walker Group, which owns Victoria Plumb. Focus DIY Focus DIY was a privately owned chain of DIY stores in the United Kingdom. It served the consumer DIY market sector, and most stores had some form of garden centre. At its peak in 2002, it was the second largest DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, although by 2011, it was the fourth. The main competitors were B&Q, Homebase and Wickes. The company operated 178 stores in the United Kingdom with 3,000 employees, but had been running losses every