История компании Great Universal Stores: от почтовой торговли к диверсификации.

Former British retail, manufacturing and finance conglomerate

Universal Stores was founded in 1900 as a mail order business in Manchester, England by Abraham, George and Jack Rose. A private company, Universal Stores (Manchester) Ltd, was set up to manage the business and the company was incorporated in 1917. In 1931, Isaac Wolfson was invited to join the company as merchandise controller after impressing director George Rose at a trade fair in Manchester, accepting no wages in return of share options. The flotation of the company was not a huge success, and with an ill advised move to London the share price dropped. In 1933 the company had made a loss of £55,000, but Wolfson's reorganisation turned this around to a profit of £330,000 in 1934. or by selling the premises and leasing it back. Through his wealth gained at Great Universal Stores, he established the Wolfson Foundation in 1955. By 1983 the company had expanded its range of operations significantly. Catalogue mail order was by far the company's primary business but the company was also engaged in retailing through shops, the manufacture of clothing and household goods, financial services, property investment and travel. Until 1997, GUS had 48 years of consecutive profit growth. The company further expanded the mail order business during the 1960s by buying rivals Bollin House (1961), This group was primarily a group of paper pulp and carpet manufacturing businesses and a mail order unit trading as John Noble. This was followed in 1976 by the acquisition of the retail business of S & U Stores Ltd, a 120 chain store holding company which operated catalogues, Greenbank and Meridien; In 1977 the business of Henry Wigfall & Son Ltd catalogue business of All Yours, Wigfalls at Home and Choice Mail Order were purchased, All of these mail order businesses became part of the GUS subsidiary, the British Mail Order Corporation Ltd (BMOC) and were run separately from Kay & Company Ltd. which GUS had already purchased 36% of the shares in. Two thirds of the shares in Empire was sold to a Dutch company, Vendex, with GUS retaining a 12% holding. UK operations were grown in 1997 with the purchase of most of Arcadia Group's catalogue business, which included the catalogues Innovations and McCord.

From the 1960s, GUS grew its presence on continental Europe. This started with the purchase of the Wehkamp mail order business based in Holland. This was increased by Swedish catalogue Hallens I. Barrasford which was purchased in 1966 and the Austrian mail order firm Universal Versand in 1968. The last purchase was Verdia in Switzerland, which was purchased in 1982 The Wehkamp catalogue was expanded by its parent company, GUS Holland BV, by purchasing smaller Dutch rival Bertels in 1970, moving into the Belgium and Germany markets and offering separate catalogues selling everything from flower bulbs to furniture and holding a third of the mail order market in Holland. GUS expanded Halens catalogue into the Finnish market in 1997.

In 1934, Great Universal started to grow its furniture business by purchasing the Midland and Hackney chains. Smart Brothers furniture chain was added in 1948 for a further £1 million. During 1955, GUS furniture factories were hit by the UK government's restrictions to hire purchase, with Tyne Furniture Works, one of Europe's biggest furniture factory's, having to go on short time due to the fall in orders. In 1957, GUS funded research by the Furniture Development Council into blooming caused by lacquers used on furniture products. In 1968, GUS purchased the combined furniture and menswear group Times Willerby, adding The Times Furnishing Company to its furniture retail portfolio, In 1985, GUS combined The Times Furnishing Group, and its remaining furniture businesses that had been consolidated under Cavendish Woodhouse, and branded them under the Times name. The 375 store business was sold to Harris Queensway in 1986, for an exchange of a 20% shareholding in Harris Queensway. who took over management of the chain and renamed it Hills & Steele. The business was making a loss and GUS took over management of the business in 1939, but sold it to British Home Stores in 1944. GUS however did not pull out of this market, and went on a purchasing spree. The first bought was Cardiff based store, Leslie Stores and its subsidiaries, John Dyer in Southsea,
London House in Newport was purchased in 1940. World War II briefly slowed the growth, but after the war Bainbridges of Lincoln, Lincolnshire & Wisbech was purchased in 1949, GUS subsidiary, Kays purchased the Kidderminster store Attwoods, while in 1954 Bladons of Hull and Jones & Higgins Peckham were acquired. The company added Pim Brothers (Dublin) and Darling & Co. Edinburgh in 1955, Ben Evans in Swansea in 1955, Houndsditch Warehouse, Houndsditch, London in 1958 and
Beavans in Byker in 1964. Other department stores acquired during this time included Butterfield and Massies of Barnsley, Webbers of Maidenhead, Wickhams and Pyne Brothers both of London. Rees Howell in Glamorgan, J Robb & Co was closed in 1973, as was Pim Brothers in 1967, both being rented out by GUS Property before being redeveloped. with Houndsditch itself closing in 1986 and being redeveloped by GUS Property as 133 Houndsditch, an office development. Garrett & Co in Woolwich was closed 1972 and replaced by a Times Furnishing store, while the likes of Bainbridges and Butterfield and Massies were converted into Thoms discount stores. and Home Charm. By the 1980s the business had 175 stores, but was sold to Harris Queensway in exchange for shares as part of the same deal that Harris had acquired Times Furniture. which operated a further 40 Carline Supermarkets and the high end grocery chain Hodgson & Hepworth in Doncaster. These businesses were sold to Associated British Foods grocery business Fine Fare in November 1968.

After the Second World War, Wolfson expanded GUS into the world of clothing retailing. It purchased the retail chains, Jays of Regent Street in 1946; ladys outfitters Wilsons in 1947 Ashley Russell; and Paige. and ladies outfitters J. Marksmith & Co. with its subsidiary As part of the purchase of Times Willerby, a furniture and men's tailoring business in 1968, the Willerby tailor stores were added to the GUS portfolio. In 1986, the 246 Paige stores were sold to retail group Combined English Stores.

In addition to clothing retailers, Isaac Wolfson expanded GUS retail portfolio into the world of Footwear. The first purchase was in 1956 when they acquired the Flateau Group, which included the subsidiaries Henry Playfair, Metropole Shoes and the Metropolitan Boot Co. This soon added to by the purchase of manufacturer and retailer Greenlees & Sons in 1957, whose subsidiaries included The businesses were merged into a new company called Greenlees Lennards Ltd. The combined company was sold to Charterhall during 1988.

Great Universal Stores expanded into the High Street electrical retail market in 1948 by buying Boyds, a radio and television retailerand rental company. The 100 stores of the J & F Stone brand were sold in 1975 to Thorn Electrical Industries who combined them into their existing Rumbelows chain, while Boyds was sold to the Electronics Rental Group in 1974.

GUS developed its manufacturing businesses in the 1950s, with products including clothing, bedding, upholstery, textiles and pottery. During the 1980s, Leonard Wolfson divested much of the companies retail and manufacturing business, to concentrate on mail order, Burberry, finance and property sectors. In 1995, Marks and Spencers and GUS discussed a merger but it was eventually blocked by the M & S board. In 1997, Great Universal Stores appointed Rose Marie Bravo as the new CEO of Burberry given the task of improving the company, which had been hit by the Asian crisis. The company acquired Argos in 1998 in a hostile takeover bid and the UK's second largest online retailer at the time, Jungle. com, in 2000 for £37 million. In 2001 the company changed its name to GUS plc using the identifier GUS on the London Stock Exchange. In November 2002, Homebase was acquired by GUS plc for £900 million, where it formed part of the Argos Retail Group. The previous month, GUS had announced that the Jungle. com business was also to be merged into the ARG division of the business and run from Argos' Milton Keynes headquarters. From early in the year the Home Shopping division also embarked on a successful turnaround strategy helped by advisers managed by Rob Wherrett of Zymolysis.

In 1947, Isaac Wolfson visited South Africa on a fact finding mission for investments and purchased shares in the newly public issued furniture retailer Lewis Stores, which operated 8 stores Lewis Stores share holding was grown to take ownership of the business, and further investments were made in manufacturing businesses Workwear, Sweet our, Lydbrook and Durban Bag Company. By 1956, Lewis Stores had grown to a 45 store chain By 1964 the retail business had grown to 120 stores. In 1972, Universal Stores were sold to South African rival Edgars, while 50 furniture stores were purchased from Edgar's and renamed Dan Hands, and the business opened stores in Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland. GUS were put under pressure during the apartheid years regarding their investments, including pressure from Wolfson College, Oxford, which had been set up by a grant from the Wolfson Foundation. In 2003 it was announced the South African business would be partially floated on the Johannesburg market as part of the divestment of non core business.

In 1949, GUS applied to the UK government asking to extend their dollar facilities to £750,000 to invest in the US to increase the sale of British goods. In 1954, GUS made an approach to purchase the US mail order and department store group Montgomery Ward with a plan to invest $100 million in the business, however the bid was rejected by Montgomery Ward's board. In December 1964, Isaac Wolfson announced they planned to expand into both the retail and manufacturing trades in the US, however no purchases were made. GUS did set up Great Universal Stores Development Company Inc. in 1964 to work with two American partners on property development, and in 1968 set up a new subsidiary, BRAMBEC, as a commercial furniture contractor for its manufacturing businesses, working in partnership with Holiday Inn.

In 1956, GUS purchased Global Tours, Europe's biggest coach tour company that had been formed by Harry Rosenthal, Joe and Harry Shuman adding Overland Tours later that year. Great Universal was a large shareholder in British Caledonian Airways, and Global formed a strong partnership with a time charter arrangement. By 1977, Global was offering low priced tours leaving from 10 different airports in the British Isles. The company however suffered from a blacklisting from Arab countries due to the company chairman being Lord Mancroft, and the companies links to Israel. In 1985, as part of Leonard Wolfsons divesting plans, Global, along with its brands Overland and Golden Circle were sold to rival tour company Intasun.

GUS Property divisions started out as an investment company developing modern office blocks, including Dale Street in Manchester, Chatworth House, and in partnership with Gerald Ronson. The company also invested in retail developments, including the 1985 development of St Nicholas Centre while redeveloping the former Robb department store in Belfast into the Donegall Arcade. In the 1980s, GUS started selling off its physical retail businesses, but retained the freehold and leaseholds, changing the company to GUS Property Management. The company continued to invest in property by purchasing The Forge shopping centre in Glasgow from Arlington Retail for £35 million in 1993 and the Connswater Shopping Centre in Belfast for £23.25m in 1996. In 1997, GUS set up a joint company with British Land to manage the £900 million property portfolio held by GUS Property Management. Called BL Universal, British Land paid £230 million for its half share of the joint company. The new business sold or relinquished 894 properties, either reinvesting in new property, such as retail parks, or returning cash to the share holders. In 2003, British Land purchased the remaining 50% shareholding from GUS for £120 million, and paid off a £43 million loan that GUS had provided to BL Universal.

GUS purchased Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co, a British owned department store chain located in the far East in 1957. In 1997 General Guarantee purchased the vehicle leasing company Highway Vehicle Management. The finance business was sold as part of the company refocus under David Wolfson and Victor Barnett. Highway Vehicle Management was sold to First National, a division of Abbey National for around £170 million in 2000, The Whiteaway Laidlaw Bank was then transferred to the Home Retail Group, and was sold in 2007 to the Manchester Building Society.

In the 1970s, the Midland Household stores division of GUS developed a credit referencing system to help against bad debt on credit provided in its furniture stores. It was such a success that it was offered to other parts of the GUS group, and it grew and developed into direct marketing, credit management and store cards. In 1980, GUS sought assistance from IBM, who recommended that they sold its products to others, thus the department became a separate organisation called Commercial Credit (Nottingham) (CCN), which sold its products to organisations outside of the GUS group. During 1984 GUS purchased Manchester Guardian Society for the Protection of Trade. In 1986, CCN bought US business MDS (Management Decision Systems), a specialist company developing credit scoring models. In November 1996, TRW sold their credit agency unit TRW Information Systems and Services Inc, that operated under the name Experian to Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners. Just one month later, the two firms sold Experian to Great Universal Stores. GUS merged the business with CCN and renamed the business Experian. In 1997, GUS purchased US direct marketing company Direct Marketing Technology for $246 million.

The company started divesting its business by selling its Universal Versand business in April 2001 to the Otto group for £23 million. Its luxury brand The Scotch House was put up for sale, but no buyer could be found and so the business was closed down in 2001 and its Knightsbridge store transferred to Burberry. The company expanded into new markets by buying the Reality Group, a Web design, hosting and e commerce consultancy business it had acquired for £35 million and merging it with its GUS Transport business, known as White Arrow, naming the combined business Reality. Later on in 2001, Breathe. com, at the time Britain's 4th largest internet service provider was purchased from near bankruptcy, but was sold just three months later at a profit to Affinity Internet Holdings. In 2004, the company sold its traditional home shopping (catalogues) division in the UK and Scandinavia and its Reality business, which included the White Arrow business to the Barclay twins for £590 million, who later merged the Littlewoods mail order operations into it. This included the iconic Great Universal Stores catalogue, from which the company took its name, and completed the departure of GUS from its original business areas. Around the same time, the Barclays announced the closure of the Littlewoods Index catalogue showroom chain, the principal rival to Argos in the UK, selling around 35 stores to Argos. Following a reorganization led by Barnett, it was announced in May 2005 that GUS would divest its stake in Burberry by distributing Burberry shares to its own shareholders. In October the Wehkamp business was sold to Swedish investment company Industri Kapital for 390 million euros, selling the last remnant of the companies mail order business. The Burberry demerger was completed in December 2005. GUS plc ranked as the highest spending online advertiser in the US, according to Nielsen NetRatings, spending over $US659m in 2006. The next ranked online advertiser, Vonage, had sales of just over $US294m. GUS plc became a wholly owned subsidiary of Experian plc after the demerger and was renamed Experian Finance plc.

Great Universal Stores Development Company Inc.