Evolve: Delivering Critical Infrastructure for Home Bargains

Major discount retailer Home Bargains has teamed up with the managed network solutions provider Evolve Business Group to bring resilient, secure payments and connectivity to more than 650 stores across the UK. Already, it is in place at 50 stores.

Founded in Liverpool in 1976 by Tom Morris, Home Bargains is well known for its ‘Top Brands, Bottom Prices’ business model. The new partnership with Evolve will simplify and strengthen the retailer's network infrastructure to support its continued growth.

Supporting ambitious expansion plans

Home Bargains is one of the biggest physical retailers in the UK, with 617 stores. It has plans to continue expanding to up to 1,000 locations.

In January 2025, it was reported that pre-tax profits for Home Bargains had surged 35% to £454.8m in the year to 30 June 2024, up from £336.5m. It also reported an 11.7% rise in annual sales to £4.2bn.

The partnership between Home Bargains and Evolve Business Group demonstrates a strategic supplier relationship model.

From a procurement perspective, it is an example of how a major retailer leverages external technology partners to deliver mission-critical network infrastructure – similar to how procurement leaders evaluate and collaborate with key suppliers to drive performance, compliance and innovation.

Streamlining operations through network consolidation

The partnership will consolidate multiple legacy networks and streamline functions like payments and CCTV into a single point of contact. As the solution is monitored by Evolve's support desk, it provides greater reliability, visibility into performance and reduced resolution times for any issue.

This reduces administrative burden, clarifies accountability and ensures stronger service-level consistency, reflecting modern procurement's push towards supplier rationalisation and integrated solutions.

The network has been designed to maximise uptime. For example, Evolve has implemented diverse connections into each store, with automatic failover to maintain connectivity if one line goes down.

To maintain rapid delivery and reduce administration, firewall rules and configuration changes will be updated automatically across all Home Bargains stores, enabling new features to be rolled out instantly.

Tony Mullen, Head of IT Infrastructure and Services at Home Bargains, says: "Having started more than 40 years ago in Liverpool, our customers continue to be at the heart of everything we do. We now serve more than seven million people each week and plan to grow our portfolio to 1,000 stores throughout the UK, opening around 50 new stores a year.

"The partnership with Evolve has simplified our infrastructure and improved resilience, offering value without compromising on service and quality. These upgrades will support us and our customers as we continue to expand."

Building a future-proof, compliant infrastructure

Through its long-standing Platinum partnership with hardware provider Mako Networks, Evolve has also implemented several bespoke elements for Home Bargains, which will ensure the network remains fast, compliant and future-proof with technologies such as fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) connectivity. Evolve has also established highly-secure connections to payment data centres and gift card hosts, adhering to full PCI compliance – ensuring third-party IT infrastructure meets stringent standards.

This is increasingly relevant in procurement's expanding oversight role in data security, continuity planning and regulatory compliance within supplier ecosystems.

Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO at Evolve Business Group, adds: "Home Bargains is a much-loved British brand that has remained true to its roots while achieving incredible growth. As another fast-growing North West business, we're proud to support that success with a secure, reliable and efficient network designed exactly to their needs.

"Whatever matters most to our customers, our team is dedicated to going the extra mile to deliver innovative technology and personalised support that enables them to grow with confidence."