Expansion and collapse
Owen Owen opened a drapery shop at 121 London Road, Liverpool. Over the years the store expanded, but in the 1920s when the city's retail focus moved away from the London Road area, the Owen family lent the company the money to move to a better position on Clayton Square where a large purpose-built department store (originally designed as a luxury hotel) was erected. The company then purchased rival chain T. J. Hughes, after a visit by then chairman Duncan Norman,[6] and moved that firm's Liverpool store into the empty London Road premises.[7][8]
Owen Owen expanded by building a store in Coventry in 1937, and purchasing Frederick Matthews in Preston. The Coventry store was fire-bombed by the IRA S-Plan campaign on 5 February 1939 with no casualties, but on 25 August 1939 a bomb in a bicycle near the store left five dead and 70 injured. The original Owen Owen building remained open until it was struck by an incendiary bomb in the Coventry Blitz on 14 November 1940. After the war, Owen Owen continued to expand, purchasing G W Robinson Ltd in Canada during 1951,[9] and adding other stores to the UK portfolio while the Coventry and Southampton stores were rebuilt.[10]
A subsidiary company, Plumb (Contract Furnishers and Shopfitters) Ltd., was created from its own shopfitting department and had offices at Bishop Street, Coventry and Kempston Street, Liverpool.[11] In 1973, the company won a takeover battle for South West department store group James Colmer, against English Calico and its subsidiary Hide & Co.[12][13] The purchase of James Colmer saw its profits jump from £7,181,000 in 1972 to £10,300,000 in 1973.[14] In 1976, the company purchased eight stores from the Maple Macowards group, including J H Stringer and W J Wade, and completed an exchange with House of Fraser with Wrights of Richmond being exchanged for the House of Fraser Doncaster store.[15] In 1979 the business operated 19 department stores branded either Owen Owen or under their original name but taglined as an Owen Owen store. It also operated three T. J. Hughes stores in the UK, and seven G W Robinson stores in Canada.[16]
In the 1980s the Owen family sold the business. G W Robinson was sold in 1982 to Canadian businessman Joseph Segal and John Levy,[9] while T. J. Hughes was split off as a separate entity. In 1991 the firm purchased several Lewis's stores from administration (not to be confused with John Lewis) and was known briefly under the business name of 'Lewis's Owen Owen', before being taken over by Philip Green in 1994.[17]
In 1995 Green launched the brand "Kid's HQ" in four of his Lewis's and Owen Owen Stores. The company was then stripped of its assets, which included the closure of the flagship Liverpool branch of Owen Owen, and was cut from twelve stores to one, Lewis's of Liverpool, following the sale of many stores to other chains including Allders and Debenhams.[17]
In early 2005, Philip Green sold his stake in the business to David Thompson who began a new phase of expansion at Owen Owen, acquiring Joplings and Robbs from the Merchant Retail Group and purchasing Esslemont & MacIntosh from the Esslemont family.[18] The Owen Owen brand name was no longer used, but remained the name of the operating company.
On 28 February 2007, Owen Owen entered administration.[19] One of the reasons given for the company's demise was the disruption caused by the Big Dig, a series of regeneration projects in Liverpool city centre.[20] The Esslemont & MacIntosh store at Aberdeen was closed on 5 May 2007.[21] In the same month the Liverpool, Hexham and Sunderland stores were sold as a going concern to Vergo Retail Ltd., controlled by the previous owner of Owen Owen, David Thompson, and enabling the stores to continue to trade.[22]
