Littlewoods
 |
|
| Industry | Mail order, Football pools |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged with Kays Catalogues |
| Successor |
Littlewoods Shop Direct Group Littlewoods.com (online) |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Founder | Sir John Moores |
| Defunct | 2005 |
| Headquarters |
Liverpool, Merseyside, England |
|
Key people
|
Sir John Moores (Founder) David and Frederick Barclay (Final Owners) |
| Owner | Shop Direct Group |
| Subsidiaries | Littlewoods Index |
| Website | littlewoods.com |
Coordinates: 53°22′2.4″N 2°51′44.2″W / 53.367333°N 2.862278°W
Littlewoods was a retail and football betting company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923. It grew to become the largest private company in Europe by the 1980s but declined in the face of increased competition from rivals and the Internet. Today the brand name remains as part of Shop Direct Group although the original company once employing 4,000 people has been broken up.
The original company began in 1923 as a football pools (sports betting) company, known as Littlewood Pools. After making a loss in the first season of operation, John Moores' original partners withdrew from the venture. Moores persisted with family assistance and by 1932 was in a position to expand the business into mail-order retailing. The first mail-order catalogue was sent to existing subscribers to the pools and the take up – mostly women – formed 'clubs'. Effectively, they became retail agents, collecting money for goods ordered from the catalogue from friends and family and distributing goods shipped to them. The mail-order business expanded and the first Littlewoods high-street store opened in 1937.
Littlewoods grew as a retail and betting organisation and, at its height, there were about 22,000 employees working there. In 1982, it was the largest private company in Europe. At one time, it was also the largest family-owned firm in the UK.
Littlewoods was among the key retailers to relocate from town-centre stores to new developments, mostly in enterprise zones, to take advantage of the financial incentives they offered. The Merry Hill store, opened on 14 November 1989, was a notable example. The catalogue market was transformed with the emergence of the Internet, and phone transactions slowly diminished after the mid-1990s. It was around this time that Littlewoods began closing its stores, with the outlet at Merry Hill in the West Midlands being one of the first outlets to close in 1996.
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Wikipedia