TJ Hughes

T. J. Hughes

Type	Private
Industry	Retail
Genre	Department Store
Fate	Administration
Founded	1912
Founder	Thomas J Hughes
Headquarters	Liverpool
Number of locations	20 (57 at peak)
Products	Home furnishing, Menswear, Woman's wear, Fragrance, Electricals, Toys
Revenue	£266.7 million (2010)
Operating income	£9.3 million (2010)
Profit	£6.8 million (2010)
Owner	Lewis's Home Retail Ltd
Website	www.tjhughes.co.uk

T. J. Hughes, registered and styled as TJ Hughes, is a British discount department store brand which first emerged in Liverpool in 1925 and had become a national chain with 57 shops by 2011. As of 2017, the business consists of 20 shops located in England and Scotland.

Thomas J. Hughes set up a small shop on Liverpool's London Road. The store had a few assistants and Hughes was the main shopkeeper, overseeing everything within the business. In 1925, the large department store group Owen Owen saw the need to move out of their Audley House site on London Road into the new centre of Liverpool at Clayton Square. The building was put up unsuccessfully for sale. The then chairman of Owen Owen, Duncan Norman, went to see the TJ Hughes shop.

Norman was so impressed that he agreed to let Hughes run and expand his business in Audley House for part-ownership of the business under Owen Owen. TJ Hughes then became a department store. The business was expanded by Owen Owen until being sold in the 1980s. Owen Owen later went on to purchase Lewis's, another Liverpool department store. The company floated on the in May 1992. It was later acquired by JJB Sports in March 2002 for £42 million, before being sold again in a £56 million buyout backed by PPM Capital in November 2003.

During the 1990s and 2000s, TJ Hughes had taken over a number of premises formerly occupied by other retailers including Allders (Ipswich), C&A (Glasgow, Romford and Hull), House of Fraser (Sheffield & Eastbourne) and various Co-operative Group societies (Warrington, Bradford, Doncaster and Crawley).

After several years of static store numbers, expansion picked up again with three new outlets opened during 2009 to 2010, and a further four opened in the first ten months of 2010 to 2011. A number of the openings were in locations left vacant by Woolworths. TJ Hughes refuted press speculation that it was looking to develop a two hundred strong chain.

TJ Hughes was sold to Endless LLP, a turnaround specialist, for an undisclosed sum in March 2011, the 13th company in Endless' portfolio. Endless bought TJ Hughes from Silverfleet Capital, which had controlled the firm since 2003. The sale followed reports that TJ Hughes had been hit by the withdrawal of credit insurance for its suppliers after a battle to secure working capital. TJ Hughes had grown by around twenty stores since its acquisition by Silverfleet Capital in November 2003.