Barratts Shoes
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| Barratts Shoes, Priceless Shoes, Dolcis | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Predecessor | W Barratt Boot and Shoe Company (1903-1964) Stylo plc (1964-2009) Barratts Priceless (2009-2012) |
| Founded | April 1903 January 2014 |
| Headquarters | Apperley Bridge, Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom |
| Products | Shoes |
| Website | www |
Barratts is a brand of high street shoe shops operating in the UK and Ireland. The Barratts shoes brand trades from 100 UK and Ireland stores.
The company was established in Northampton in 1903, and became a highly successful brand known for its lavishly produced boot catalogues during the 1920s. In 1964, it was bought by the company Stylo and, under the Barratts brand name, expanded to over 400 stores at its height, before foreign competition in the 1990s reduced its market share.
Barratts entered administration for the third time in five years on 11 November 2013, with Duff & Phelps appointed as administrators. The brand and website were bought by the footwear entrepreneur Harvey Jacobsen and the former buying and merchandising director of Barratts, Simon Robson, in January 2014.
W Barratt Boot and Shoe Company was established in 1903, and soon became one of the leading shoe manufacturers in Northampton. In 1913 it moved into a neo-Baroque factory designed by John Macvicar Anderson. The Barratts brand entered a new era of prosperity in the 1920s with the publication of luxurious promotional catalogues, including specially commissioned artwork and decorative pages. The 1923 catalogue featured an endorsement by the famed couturier Lady Duff Gordon, who also contributed an illustrated introduction to the women's section of this edition. The firm continued to flourish into the mid-20th century under the advertising slogan "Walk the Barratt Way".
Stylo was a family run business which originated in 1935, with the consolidation of three separate companies the company was floated on the under the trade name Stylo Boot Company (Northern) Ltd. Having grown to 150 outlets, in 1964 Stylo bought W Barratt and Company, and merged the two businesses in Bradford.
Developing under the better known Barratts brand, the company developed to over 400 retail outlets. However, in the 1990s it suffered from low cost foreign competition, and subsequently issued new stock merged with rival Priceless. Based in Apperley Bridge, Bradford, West Yorkshire, the new company operated over 300 UK and Ireland concessions across the Arcadia Group, including within Dorothy Perkins, as well as supporting the Group's online activity. Barratts also had an online presence with the retailer Wallis.
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Wikipedia