The locations in Omagh and Londonderry are among 10 stores that the garden centre and homewares business is selling to Sainsbury’s.
The new shops will take the total number of Sainsbury’s supermarkets in Northern Ireland to 14.
All of the Homebase stores will be converted into supermarkets, and the retailer says that it means that 400,000 more people across the UK will be within a 10 minute drive of a Sainsbury’s.
The first of the new shops will be open next summer, and all 10 conversions are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Sainsbury’s estimates the gross investment value of its purchase to be £130m, and says the new stores will create 1,000 new jobs at the company.
Any Homebase employees who are at risk of redundancy because of the sale are being guaranteed an interview, Sainsbury’s said.
A Sainsbury’s spokesperson said they “expect the stores to achieve strong returns, with return on capital employed in the low teens, comfortably in excess of Sainsbury’s cost of capital”.
The new shops will take the total number of Sainsbury’s supermarkets in Northern Ireland to 14. The store in Derry will be the second location in the city, and the Omagh Sainsbury’s will be the first location in the Tyrone town.
Simon Roberts, chief executive officer, J Sainsbury plc said: “Sainsbury’s food business continues to go from strength to strength as we push ahead with our Next Level Sainsbury’s plan.
“We have the best combination of value and quality in the market and that’s winning us customers from all our key competitors and driving consistent growth in volume market share. We want to build on this momentum which is why we are growing our supermarket footprint.
“Our ambition is to be customers’ first choice for food and these new stores will showcase some of the best that Sainsbury’s supermarkets have to offer to even more communities around the country.”
Sainsbury’s is the second most popular supermarket in Northern Ireland, and has a 16.9% of the market, according to the latest grocery market report from Kantar – a 0.4% increase on their share last year.
The chain had strong revenue growth of 7.7%, helped by a higher frequency of trips to their stores by customers. Sainsbury’s had an additional £101.4m in sales in Northern Ireland.
In April, the company said that sales UK-wide had risen by 3.4% to £36.3bn in the year to March 2, driven by its food business. Like-for-like sales, excluding fuel, increased by 7.5%.
Chief executive Simon Roberts told The Times that people were returning to the office and doing less of their shopping online. “That means people are doing more of their weekly shop with us.”
He added: “Customers are back in the office and some of the patterns we saw through the pandemic have unwound a bit.
“More and more want to go to a supermarket, where they have full choice.”