Shop Direct

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Shop Direct Group
Public
Industry Retail/Home shopping
Predecessor Littlewoods Shop Direct Group
Founded 1 November 2005
(1923 as Littlewoods Pools)
Founders David and Frederick Barclay
Key people
 David and Frederick Barclay (Owners)
Products Clothing
Electronics
Furniture
Homeware
Jewellery
Divisions Very
Littlewoods & Littlewoods.com
Website www.shopdirect.com

Shop Direct Group is a multi-brand online retailer in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[citation needed] It is based in the Speke area of the city of Liverpool, in Merseyside, England. Established in November 2005 as a result of the merger of the former Littlewoods and Shop Direct companies, the retailer was known as Littlewoods Shop Direct Group until a corporate rebranding in May 2008.[citation needed]

A business group trading via several digital department stores, Shop Direct traces its roots to a variety of mail order companies in northern England, the football pools and mail order business founded by John Moores, as well as the Manchester-based home shopping business of Great Universal Stores.[citation needed] These companies were purchased by Sir David and Frederick Barclay in 2003,[1] and a major business restructuring took place leading to a merger of two companies that had "been arch rivals for the best part of 100 years".[2]

Since the merger of what had been struggling businesses in 2005[citation needed], ongoing restructuring and modernisation of the company has resulted in Shop Direct emerging as one of the largest online retailers in the UK[citation needed]. Its traditional paper-based and phone-in orders system has been superseded by electronic commerce technology.[citation needed]

The group is now amongst the largest online retailers in the UK[citation needed], with annual sales of £1.7bn[citation needed], of which 81% are online[citation needed], with almost two-fifths of those from mobile devices[citation needed].

The group's main brands are Very.co.uk and Littlewoods.com. In 2009, Shop Direct also acquired the brand name of the failed Woolworths and re-established it as an online-only operation.[3]

History

Origins

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Main articles: GUS (retailer), Littlewoods, and Woolworths Group
A former Littlewoods branch in Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Shop Direct Group traces its roots to a variety of independent mail order and retail companies in northern England, particularly Littlewoods, the pools and mail order business founded by John Moores, as well as the Manchester-based home shopping business of Great Universal Stores. Other businesses from this time now part of Shop Direct include K&Co (formerly Kays Catalogues).

Founded by John Moores and his brother Cecil in 1923, Littlewoods was initially a football pools company, which used its network of pools agents and printing company (founded in 1928) to establish itself as a catalogue retailer from 1932 onwards.[citation needed]

The success of the catalogue shopping business led to the opening of a Littlewoods high street department store in Blackpool in 1937.[citation needed]

In October 2001, Littlewoods became the owner of Swan electronics.[citation needed]

In November 2002, the Moores family sold Littlewoods to the Barclay brothers for £750 million.[citation needed]

Littlewoods also owned the Index chain of stores.[citation needed]

The home shopping/catalogues business of Argos and Homebase owner, GUS plc, ARG Equation (which included Great Universal, Kays, Choice and Marshall Ward) was de-merged and bought by the Barclay brothers in 2003, where it became Shop Direct.[citation needed]

Merger: Littlewoods Shop Direct Group

File:Littlewoods Shop Direct Group.svg
The logo of Littlewoods Shop Direct Group, used between 2005 and 2008.

In March 2005, following a 20-year history in which it had never made a profit,[citation needed] it was announced that part of the Index chain of catalogue shops was to be sold to Argos, and the remainder was to be closed.[4]

In July 2005, Associated British Foods purchased the 120-branch Littlewoods retail chain on behalf of its retail subsidiary Primark for £409 million.[citation needed] Some of the stores were converted into branches of Primark, and the remainder were sold on to other retailers. The Littlewoods name disappeared from the British high street in March 2006.[citation needed]

Following these disposals, and clearance from the Competition Commission, the Littlewoods home shopping business was formally merged with that of Shop Direct (the former GUS plc home shopping business) in October 2005, to form the United Kingdom's largest home shopping business.[citation needed] The merger was in reality effected in early 2004 when work started on a business optimisation programme, consolidating various business functions.[citation needed]

Following the merger, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group moved its headquarters from Manchester city centre to Skyways House in Speke, south Liverpool.[5]

The then newly appointed Chief Executive Mark Newton-Jones said the merger had "been the biggest challenge of all – taking two companies that [had] been arch rivals for the best part of 100 years and bringing them together. Not just from an operational point of view, but also two different business cultures".[2]

Post-merger

In May 2008, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group announced it would change its corporate brand name to Shop Direct Group, to reflect the multi-branded nature of the business.[6] In July 2008, Shop Direct completed its purchase of the Empire Stores brand name and customer base from mail order competitor Redcats.[citation needed]

Home Delivery Network, previously Shop Direct Group's logistics division, became an independent

With the demise of the Woolworths Group in January 2009,[7] Shop Direct purchased rights to children's clothing brand Ladybird along with the Woolworths trade name from the administrators.[8][9] The takeover of the Woolworths brand by Shop Direct was announced on 2 February 2009,[10] and the new online retailer began trading on 25 June that year.[11]

At the start of 2009, Shop Direct predicted growth in online sales, with a spokesperson saying: "We anticipate that 70 per cent of our sales will be online by 2010/11 and, therefore, the future of our business is online-led." It was confirmed in late 2009 that it was on track to achieve 70% of its sales via the internet by 2011. By the end of the 2012/13 financial year, this figure had reached 78%.

Structure and brands

Shop Direct operates a variety of retail brands, consisting of the former Littlewoods brands and the former Shop Direct brands (Additions Direct, Abound, Great Universal, Marshall Ward, Choice, and Kays). Some of those brands subsequently changed name and now include Very.co.uk (formerly Additions) and 'Littlewoods.com'. Isme (formally Marshall Ward), Woolworths.co.uk, KandCo.com (merged from former brands Empire Stores, Kays and Great Universal) have all been merged into very.co.uk. All of the group's brands retail clothing and footwear, electricals, home and furniture, gifts and beauty, outdoor and seasonal and toys.[citation needed]

Musician and presenter Myleene Klass is currently the face of Littlewoods.com. She has designed a range for the brand since July 2012 and has gone on to become the fastest selling celebrity designer that the brand has ever worked with. Former star of The Only Way Is Essex, Mark Wright is the face of menswear at Littlewoods, starting work with the brand in July 2013 to style and model a capsule collection for its own-brand men's fashion label, Goodsouls.[citation needed]

As well as its celebrity brands, Shop Direct also has a growing stable of own-brand fashion labels. Alongside the core retail business, Shop Direct owns and operates a financial services business, formerly known as Everyday Financial Solutions, and now known as Shop Direct Financial Services.[citation needed]

It also has discount outlets called Bargain Crazy to sell of surplus goods from the Shop Direct group at discounted prices. It currently has ten stores in the UK.[12]

Locations

File:SDG factories.jpg
Shaw National Distribution Centre is Shop Direct Group's premier warehousing and returns centre; the base of mail order logistics.

Shop Direct's headquarters is Skyways House, a £31 million renovated aircraft hangar, situated in Speke, south Liverpool.[13][14]

Mail order processing for Shop Direct broadly takes place in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, particularly at the Shaw National Distribution Centre, a warehousing and returns centre in Shaw and Crompton, Greater Manchester.[8] It comprises six former cotton mills Lily 1, Lily 2, Newby, Rutland, Ash and Dee. Subsequently Rutland, Ash and Dee mills have been demolished and replaced with new purpose made buildings. It is one of Europe's largest retail distribution centres.[8] Shop Direct processes returns at Raven Mill in Chadderton, which it uses for processing returned goods.

On 9 May 2006, the company announced the closure of three warehouses in Eccles, Wigan and Worcester. These closures have taken place, with all operations being transferred to their Shaw and Crompton site. Around 1,200 jobs were lost from the closures, but further jobs were created at the Shaw National Distribution Centre.[15]


References

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External links

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