Richard Shops
Encyclopedia
History
Richard Shops was originally part of the clothes-selling empire United Drapery StoresUnited Drapery Stores
United Drapery Stores, or UDS, was a British retail group that dominated the British high street from the 1950s to the 1980s.-Early history:The group was founded in 1927 and from the outset sought to grow through the takeover of other companies. The company started with five department stores in...
, created in 1927 by the controversial Leeds-born businessman and philanthropist Jack Lyons. From the 1960s to the 1990s it was a ubiquitous part of almost every British high street and shopping centre, selling fashion clothing designed to appeal to teenage girls and young women.
In 1958 Richard Shops became part of the Allders
Allders
Allders is an independent department store in Croydon, established by Joshua Allder in 1862. It is the fourth-largest department store in the United Kingdom.The Croydon store was the flagship of a large chain of department stores in the UK...
department store group, following the reverse takeover
Reverse takeover
A reverse takeover or reverse merger is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public...
of Allders by Jack Lyons and his brother Bernard. The combined new group was renamed UDS, and there followed a rapid expansion and promotion of the stores. In the 1970s a hugely popular television advertisement began to appear with a jingle that is still often remembered by the British public:
Richards Shops are filled with all the pretty things,
Soft and lovely pretty things to wear,
Hey there, pretty face,
Make the world a prettier place,
Come pretty up,
Come buy your clothes at Richards Shops.
In 1983 UDS was sold to Hanson plc
Hanson plc
Hanson plc is a British based international building materials company, headquartered in Maidenhead. Traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index for many years, the company was acquired by a division of German rival Heidelberg Cement in August 2007.-History:Hanson...
, but, in an attempt to recover the cost of the purchase, Hanson immediately split Richard Shops from UDS and sold it on as a separate company. It was bought by the newly formed retail group Habitat/Mothercare PLC
Habitat (retailer)
Habitat Retail Ltd. is a retailer of household furnishings in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and has franchised outlets in other countries. Founded in 1964 by Terence Conran, it was sold by the IKANO Group, owned by the Kamprad family, in December 2009 to Hilco, a restructuring...
, and became part of Storehouse plc
Storehouse plc
Storehouse plc was a large UK retail business formed by Terence Conran through the merger of various high street chains. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index before it was renamed Mothercare in 2000....
following the merger of Habitat/Mothercare with British Home Stores in 1986.
With the financial troubles suffered by the Storehouse group in the late 1980s, Richard Shops began to lose direction at a time when the high street was becoming a more competitive place for fashion retailers. Since 1972 the men's clothing retailer Burton's had been expanding its chain of women's fashion stores under the TopShop
Topshop
Topshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
brand, and in 1979 it acquired Richard Shops' longtime rival Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins, whose trading name was inspired by a rambler rose of the same name, is a large British women's clothing retailer, active mostly in the United Kingdom.- History :...
. A more direct assault on Richard Shops came from the Burton Group as Burton's was now known in 1984 when it launched the women's fashion chain Principles
Principles (retailer)
Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.The firm was launched by the Burton Group as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the yuppie, a new upmarket cultural movement, and power dressing was a key trend: at the time,...
. Not only did Principles manage to capture something of the mood of the late 1980s in its designs, but it represented the most direct assault to date by Burton on the largely middle-class customer base of Richard Shops.
In 1988 Storehouse appointed a new chief executive, Michael Julien http://www.julienco.com/index.html#01, to replace Terence Conran
Terence Conran
Sir Terence Orby Conran, FCSD, is an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.-Early life and education:Terence Conran was born in Kingston upon Thames, the son of Christina Mabel and South African-born Gerard Rupert Conran, a businessman who owned a rubber importation company in East...
, and the group was reorganised into three divisions, with Richard Shops sharing 'Speciality Retailing' with the group's brands Mothercare
Mothercare
Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to 8 years old. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
, Blazer, Anonymous, and Jacadi.
In 1992 Richard Shops was sold to the British retailing giant Sears plc
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:...
(not to be confused with the American stores of the same name), the then owner of the London department store Selfridges
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...
, and the women's clothing retailers Wallis
Wallis (retailer)
Wallis is a British women's clothing retailer. The brand operates from 134 stores and 126 concessions across the UK and Republic of Ireland. Wallis is a subsidiary of the Arcadia Group and one of the many companies under ownership of Philip Green, a British retailing icon.-History:The first store...
, Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which...
and Outfit. In 1999 Sir Philip Green
Philip Green
Sir Philip Green is a British businessman. Green was born into a Jewish family in 1952, beginning as a businessman at the age of 15. The first and last quoted company Green took lead of was "Amber Day", from which he stepped down as CEO and Chairman in 1992...
, who had acquired Sears plc, transferred Richard Shops, along with Wallis, to the Arcadia Group
Arcadia Group
The Arcadia Group Limited a British company that owns the high street clothing retailers Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop, Wallis and BHS, and the out of town chain Outfit, which sells lines from the other group chains...
which immediately announced the closure of all branches of Richard Shops, or their conversion to other Arcadia brands.
Today
Today the company Richard Shops Holdings, and associated limited companies, are still registered with Companies HouseCompanies House
Companies House is the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies and is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the...
as 'dormant companies' with their head offices at Arcadia's headquarters in London. However no stores are now trading as Richard Shops.
External links
Storehouse plcStorehouse plc
Storehouse plc was a large UK retail business formed by Terence Conran through the merger of various high street chains. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index before it was renamed Mothercare in 2000....
- article from Funding Universe
Storehouse plc
Storehouse plc
Storehouse plc was a large UK retail business formed by Terence Conran through the merger of various high street chains. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index before it was renamed Mothercare in 2000....
- article in New York Times