Woolworths was a British high-street variety retail chain, founded in 1909 by Frank Winfield Woolworth as the British division of the F.W. Woolworth Company.
In the 1920s and 1930s, the chain had engaged in rapid nationwide expansion, becoming one of the country's largest retailers.[2] It also operated Woolworth divisions internationally, such as in Ireland.[3] In the 1960s, the retailer introduced its Woolco hypermarket stores.[4] In 1982, Woolworths separated from its American parent when it was purchased by Paternoster Stores Ltd, which would become Kingfisher plc. The sale included B&Q which Woolworths had previously acquired.
In June 2001, Woolworths split from Kingfisher plc and became Woolworths Group PLC, including MVC, VCI Group (later known as 2Entertain), Entertainment UK, Streets Online, Chad Valley and Ladybird.[5] The Woolworths Group also later included Total Home Entertainment and Bertrams.[6][7]
On 26 November 2008, the Woolworths and Entertainment UK subsidiaries entered administration.[8] Deloitte closed all 807 Woolworths shops between 27 December 2008 and 6 January 2009, resulting in 27,000 job losses.[9] Woolworths Group plc entered administration on 27 January 2009.[10] In February 2009, Shop Direct Group (later known as The Very Group) purchased the Woolworths brand and website, which continued as an online-only business, until its closure in June 2015, when it was merged into Very.co.uk.
In July 2021, the former German division of the F.W. Woolworth Company, Woolworth GmbH, acquired the British and Irish Woolworths brand and website from The Very Group for an undisclosed sum.
History
Establishment of the business
The British branch of the F. W. Woolworth Company, which had been founded in Pennsylvania, F. W. Woolworth & Co. Ltd, was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool, England, on 5 November 1909.[11] Frank Woolworth allegedly had ancestry in Woolley, Cambridgeshire – Frank claimed he had traced his ancestry through the Pilgrim Fathers to a small "farm in middle England".[12] When Frank eventually travelled to England in 1890,[13] he docked in Liverpool and travelled by train to Stoke-on-Trent for the purchase of china and glassware for Woolworth's ranges, but also noted his love of England in his diary and his aspirations for bringing the Woolworth name to England:
I believe that a good penny and sixpence store, run by a live Yankee, would be a sensation here.
Aftermath of insolvency in the UK
Former shops
The administrators announced on 10 December 2008, that they were having difficulty selling the company as a going concern, and as a result, some shops might close before the end of the month. Talks were still progressing to sell individual shops and leases to a number of retailers, said to include the supermarket chains Morrisons, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, The Co-operative Group, and Poundland.[76]
In December 2008, Woolworths executive Tony Page and former UBS banker Gareth Thomas were trying to raise around £30,000,000 to relaunch the brand after closure with a chain of 125 shops.[77][78]
Incidents
Disasters
New Cross, London
Many branches of Woolworths suffered severe bomb damage and even destruction during the Luftwaffe attacks in the early part of the Second World War. However, it was towards the end of the war that the largest civilian loss of life due to direct enemy fire in Britain during the conflict occurred when, at lunchtime on 25[101] November 1944, a German V-2 rocket fell on a packed Woolworths shop in New Cross Road, killing 168 people (including 15 children), injuring 122 others and razing the building to the ground. The neighbouring London Co-operative Society shop was also demolished in the attack. The shop was especially busy as news of a delivery of hard-to-obtain saucepans generated huge crowds, many of whom were queueing outside at the time of the rocket's impact.
Planning and economic restrictions after the war meant Woolworths did not build a replacement shop on the site until 1960; this closed in 1984. It was reported that some employees there felt the building was haunted.[102]
Music
Woolworths was for many years a leader in the UK music industry. In the 1950s and well into the 1960s, Woolworths issued recordings available only via its shops on its own label Embassy Records, produced and manufactured by Oriole Records. These releases were double-sided singles featuring two cover versions of current hit singles sold at a much cheaper price. This venture was very successful at the time, but was eventually killed off when other record companies started to issue compilation albums. However, Woolworths remained in the music business selling a wide range of singles and albums, and remained the UK's biggest music retailer well into the 1990s. Even successful nationwide music specialist shops such as Virgin Megastores and HMV did not overtake Woolworths during this time. They later suffered from strong competition in this field from the large supermarket chains Tesco and Asda.
Cafés
In the early days, many Woolworths locations had cafés. However, as the years went on and many larger shops were either closed or downscaled, fewer had cafés. When the shops finally ceased trading in 2008/9, only around 5% of them had cafés. These were usually located at the back of the shops or, when a shop had a second sales floor, they were located either in the basement or upstairs on the first floor. They sold the usual range of hot and cold drinks, with hot food available, including breakfasts and lunch-time meals.
Subsidiaries
Entertainment UK
Entertainment UK (EUK) was founded as Record Merchandisers Limited in 1966 by EMI Music Publishing to distribute music to non-specialist retailers. It later became a joint venture between a number of record companies. Woolworths became Entertainment UK's largest customer and in 1986 Record Merchandisers Limited was acquired by Kingfisher plc. Record Merchandisers was renamed Entertainment UK in 1988.
EUK became the property of Woolworths Group plc after the de-merger from Kingfisher in 2001. In 2006, Woolworths Group acquired Total Home Entertainment Distribution Limited (THE) and combined it with EUK.[107] In November 2007 the company acquired the book wholesaler and distributor Bertram Books.[108]
EUK was the main supplier of Zavvi under an exclusive supply deal.[109] As a result of EUK entering into administration, on 24 December the music retailer was also forced into administration as it was unable to source stock on favourable terms direct from suppliers.
Brands
Winfield
The Winfield brand was launched by Woolworths in 1963 and continued until the 1980s. Goods sold under the brand included household cleaners, groceries, kitchenware, perfumes, and other ranges such as fishing tackle.[117]
Chad Valley
Chad Valley was launched in 1991 to create an own label range of merchandise. The Chad Valley brand name, which has been in existence since 1860, is used on a range of toys and games suitable for children under 8 years old. Home Retail Group, then the parent company of Argos and Homebase, purchased the brand for £5 million on 20 January 2009.[118] Chad Valley first appeared exclusively in the Autumn/Winter 2009 Argos catalogue.
Ladybird
External links
References
- Paul Coslett. The birth of a shopping tradition BBC, 2 December 2008, retrieved 15 August 2013^
- Rosie Lavan. A history of Woolies: 99 years of pic 'n' mix The Times, 26 November 2008, retrieved 11 December 2008^
- Opinion: Don't cry for Woolworths.. its time was up