With 250 stores, Focus owes £180m to senior debt holders and a further £100m to mezzanine bond holders including Goldman Sachs. However, despite trading dif"culties in general among DIY chains in Britain such as King"sher-owned B&Q, Focus managed to report a 1.9% rise in like-for-lie sales in the 17 weeks to 2 January. Focus was spun off from the Wickes group in 2005 and it's known that Grafton, which owns the Woodies DIY chain in Ireland, ran the rule over the Wickes business at the time. However, it is believed that Wickes was sold for more than it was worth at the time. Focus is jointly owned by management and venture capital "rms Apax Partners and Duke Street Capital. Pro"ts at the group fell slightly to £42.7m last year on 5% fall in turnover to £700m.