History

The company began life on a street barrow in 1863 when John Upson started to sell his shoes on Woolwich

Woolwich

Woolwich is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...

 Town Market. Business grew, and from the barrow he graduated to his first store in Woolwich called the Great Boot Provider.

In 1920 the company went public and the name Dolcis started to appear over the shop doors. It is believed that he lifted the name from a Swiss sock stamp. In 1956, it became part of the British Shoe Corporation

Sears plc

Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it was acquired by Sir Philip Green in 1999.-History:...

 and in 1967 was relocated to Leicester. In 1988 Dolcis was chosen by British Shoe Corporation as the pilot company for the installation of EPOS equipment.

In 1998 the Dolcis business was bought by the Alexon Group

Alexon group

Alexon Group plc is a ladies' clothing retailer, based in Luton, England. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange . It is a constituent of the FTSE Fledgling Index....

 and relocated to Luton. In 2006 Dolcis was sold by Alexon in a deal involving Scottish retail entrepreneur John Kinnaird. Kinnaird unveiled an ambitious plan to refurbish the chain's stores, boost the fashionability of its products and update the brand. Plans were to see 20 shops refitted by the end of 2007, another 20 in the first half of 2008 and the remainder by the end of that year.

At the end of 2007, Dolcis had 65 High Street branches across the UK. In addition to these there were also over 150 Dolcis concessions, primarily within Bay Trading and Envy stores. In 2007 Dolcis began trading online.

Administration

The company was making a loss of £6m a year on the sale of £62m worth of shoes. On January 21, 2008, the retailer fell into administration, partially as a result of the slowdown in spending due to the onset of the credit crunch

Credit crunch

A credit crunch is a reduction in the general availability of loans or a sudden tightening of the conditions required to obtain a loan from the banks. A credit crunch generally involves a reduction in the availability of credit independent of a rise in official interest rates...

 - which led to a recession

Late 2000s recession

The late-2000s recession, sometimes referred to as the Great Recession or Lesser Depression or Long Recession, is a severe ongoing global economic problem that began in December 2007 and took a particularly sharp downward turn in September 2008. The Great Recession has affected the entire world...

 and more high profile business failures - in the UK.

It was announced that KPMG

KPMG

KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....

 would try to find a buyer for the business as a going concern.
On February 13, 2008, the brand name Dolcis and 24 of the company's 185 shops were bought by Stylo

Stylo

Stylo plc is a UK based PLC engaged in footwear retailing based in Bradford. It operates under more than 1 brand including Barratts, Priceless and Shutopia and supplies shoes to Dorothy Perkins...

 of Bradford

Bradford

Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

. The shops would be rebranded as Barratts and the brand name of Dolcis would disappear from view. 800 former Dolcis staff lost their jobs, but 300 shop employees were kept by Stylo Barratt.