...instore
 |
|
| Retail | |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Huddersfield, England, United Kingdom |
|
Number of employees
|
5,000 |
| Website | Pound Stretcher |
...instore was a chain of retail stores in the United Kingdom selling a range of products and principally concentrating on value home-ware items.
The company was headquartered in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire but did not have a store in the town: the nearest was 5 miles (8.0 km) away at Ravensthorpe Shopping Park, Dewsbury. The company had over 5,000 employees.
Instore plc, formerly Brown & Jackson plc, was the parent company of "...instore", operating 340 stores across the UK also including Poundstretcher- and Ponden Mill-branded sites.
The ...instore name was created as part of a major rebranding of the existing, value-led Poundstretcher business that had been trading since 1981. In September 2002 the company concluded a programme of rebranding half its Poundstretcher stores as "...instore" in an attempt to reposition the business as a more mid-market retailer. Trading subsidiaries What Everyone Wants, Your More Stores and the Famous Brunswick Shoe Warehouse were also disposed of at this time. In July 2005 the company adopted the name of Instore plc, replacing the previous Brown & Jackson plc name.
In 2006, a new chief executive concluded that the re-branding was not working and from 2007, new stores were opened as Poundstretcher stores. In January 2008, the company acquired 33 Ponden Mill stores under license from the administrators of the company, along with some rights to the Coloroll brand.
The company continued to operate both ...instore and Poundstretcher brands, but as of 2009 has reverted its core estate to the Poundstretcher brand.
Established in 1981 by Paul Appell and Stephen Fearnley, Poundstretcher had grown to a business consisting of 338 stores by 2004. Roughly half of the stores were converted to the ...instore format by the end of 2002 and the Pounstretcher business began to marketed jointly with ...instore outlets, sharing the same offers and slogan.
By 2009, the company had deemed the rebranding exercise a failure and ...instore shops were expected to revert to the Poundstretcher fascia. A new Poundstretcher Extra format has also been developed for larger stores.
After selling Poundstretcher, Mr. Appell and Mr. Fearnley became involved in a failing retail business, United News Shops, which they managed to revitalise. Growing to become the largest convenience store and cafeteria business servicing British hospitals, United News Shops was sold to WH Smith in March 2008.
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Wikipedia