Arcadia Group
Encyclopedia
The Arcadia Group Limited (formerly the Arcadia Group PLC and the Burton Group PLC) a British
company that owns the high street
clothing retailers Burton
, Dorothy Perkins
, Evans
, Miss Selfridge
, Topman
, Topshop
, Wallis and BHS, and the out of town chain Outfit
, which sells lines from the other group chains. The group has more than 2,500 outlets in the UK, concessions in UK department store
s such as Debenhams
, Selfridges
and House of Fraser
, as well as several hundred franchises in other countries. Arcadia Group Ltd. is the largest business interest of retailing magnate Sir Philip Green
, and is owned by his Monaco tax-resident wife Tina
, via a holding company, for tax reasons.
in Chesterfield
in 1903 under the name of The Cross-Tailoring Company. Burton's initial operation - a men's clothing manufacture, tailoring and retailing operation - became the genesis for the current Burton Menswear chain, which remains part of the company to this day, albeit having moved away from traditional tailoring to mainstream men's off-peg casuals and formalwear line with shifting trends in fashion and clothing.
The firm's headquarters moved from Chesterfield to Leeds in 1910, and 'The Cross-Tailoring Company' had changed its name to 'Burton' by the time the First World War broke out in 1914.
The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
in 1929, by which time it had 400 stores, factories and mills.
The Company had a large factory in Leeds
which was visited by the Princess Royal
in 1934.
'. In 1946 the Company acquired the Peter Robinson women's fashion chain. By 1952, the year of Montague Burton
's death, the Company was the largest multiple tailor in the world.
Burton was the official sponsor for the World Cup
in 1966.
In the mid-60s the Peter Robinson chain was relaunched as Topshop. This was in response to the development of a new young fashion culture around Britain in the 1960s; Topshop became the company's home of young, modern, on-trend ladieswear, a role it continues to hold. The Topshop launch began with Topshop-branded departments within Peter Robinson stores in 1964, with the first standalone Topshop stores opened ten years later in 1974. Eventually the Peter Robinson name was dropped altogether.
In 1971 the Group acquired Evans, a major operator in the field of fashionable clothing for the larger-size female customer.
In the 70s, and as a complement to the suit business, the Group started to develop itself significantly in mainstream clothing retailing by beginning to target chains to precisely defined markets - for example it launched Topman for young men in 1970. This development capitalised on the success of Topshop in catering for a young, fashion-savvy audience, and reflected the growth in men's casual clothing, with formal-wear sales declining due to the trend for more casual general clothing.
The firm also expanded its horizons by acquiring businesses outside its fashion heartland, at one point owning stationery chain Ryman
but later scaled back to focus principally on clothing.
In 1979 the Dorothy Perkins chain was acquired, enabling the Group to expand into the mainstream womenswear market, following the success of its previous ladieswear ventures (Topshop and Evans). The Dorothy Perkins chain has subsequently been positioned as the group's flagship ladieswear operation, focused towards a similar target audience as Burton is in menswear.
In 1984 the Group launched a new chain, Principles
, for fashion conscious women with a higher disposable income; this allowed the firm to capitalise on emerging new fashion and business trends of the 1980s, such as power dressing
. Principles for Men was launched a year later, in 1985, following the success of the ladies' division.
Also in 1985 the Group acquired Debenhams
, then the largest department store group in the UK. The large store Browns of Chester, which had previously been part of the Burton group, was subsequently moved across to trade as part of the Debenhams chain, and remained part of the Debenhams unit following the unit's divestment (it is today the only Debenhams-owned store not branded under the Debenhams name).
The firm also purchased menswear firm Colliers, ultimately rolling this in to the Burton, Topman and Principles For Men chains.
of the early 1990s which had led to declining sales across the clothing retail market, the Burton Group undertook a major review of its trading space portfolio. Under the banner of 'Townprint', the firm reviewed the location and branding of its stores in each town and city in which they operated. At the time of the review the Group was operating in the region of 1600 stores, some of which had been with the group for some years and some of which were no longer performing adequately. The ultimate result was that the Group ended the leases on around 380 of the outlets they were trading from at that point, though replaced over half of these (around 220 stores in all) with the lease of store units which the Group had not previously been trading from. Around 350 stores were transferred from one of the company's brands to another. As part of the Townprint programme, the firm began to roll out new ways of working, such as operating increasing numbers of combined stores, where several brands shared the same unit; these combinations (such as Topshop/Topman or Burton/Dorothy Perkins unit-shares) would continue to be developed through the 1990s and 2000s as a way of reducing overheads whilst maintaining geographical spread of the brands.
In 1996, the Group made its first move into home shopping with the acquisition of Innovations along with the Hawkshead brand in July 1996 and Racing Green in October 1996. Innovations and some related brands were then sold to the home shopping group Great Universal Stores
in November 1997.
The decision to de-merge Debenhams and separate it from the rest of the Group was announced in July 1997: the plan was approved by shareholders in January 1998 and the de-merger took effect later that month. At that time Debenhams became a separate company with its own listing on the London Stock Exchange
. It was at this point that the Group, until then still Burton Group plc, became Arcadia Group plc.
The late 1990s also saw the launch of a new experimental high-fashion menswear chain, SU214 (Style Union 214), which took its name from its flagship store at 214 Oxford Street in London. The chain aimed to capitalise on the growing demand for high-end casualwear and expand upon the group's presence in the young menswear market.
In June 1998 the Group acquired Wade-Smith, the Liverpool
-based retailer of designer childrenswear, menswear and womenswear. The acquisition was primarily to allow Arcadia to expand its presence in the childrenswear market, which they had made little attempt at up to this point. New Wade Smith Jr stores opened in locations such as the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.
In June 1999 Arcadia Group launched Zoom, an e-commerce and Internet Service Provider that forms a key part of the Group's multi-channel approach to retailing. Shortly after Zoom's launch, Associated Newspapers Ltd acquired a 50% stake in Zoom, allowing both partners to benefit from the increased joint marketing opportunities.
In July 1999 Arcadia Group increased its share of the UK womenswear market with the acquisition of the Sears
womenswear businesses, comprising the Warehouse, Wallis, Richards
, Miss Selfridge
and Outfit brands from the defunct Sears plc
. Shortly afterwards, Arcadia chose to close down the underperforming Richards chain, though shops in suitable locations were rebranded under other Arcadia store brands. Arcadia continued to develop the Wallis, Miss Selfridge and Warehouse brands, and expanded significantly the Outfit out-of-town store chain, introducing other Arcadia brands to the stores and expanding the store network.
In 2002, Arcadia Group PLC was bought by Taveta Investments, owned by Taveta Ltd based in Jersey. Taveta Ltd is owned by Philip Green's Family, the only director is Tina Green the wife of billionaire Philip Green
accordingly Arcadia Group became a private company and was delisted from the London Stock Exchange
.
By the middle of October 2002, the company had sold some of its chains, including Principles, Warehouse, Racing Green and Hawkshead, to Rubicon Retail
for £35m. Those Outfit stores which were already retailing Principles and Warehouse clothing continued to do so by arrangement with the new owners. Arcadia also entered into discussions regarding the sale of the Wade Smith brand back to its previous owners.
In 2005, Sir Philip Green bought the UK retail stores of Etam
and Tammy; these stores were converted into other Arcadia retail outlets, with Tammy clothing subsequently being retailed through BHS and Outfit
stores. Some of the stores not retained by Arcadia were taken up by other fashion retail groups, with Monsoon acquiring a large number of the outlets.
In February 2009 it was announced that the BHS department store chain, also owned by the Greens, will be integrated into Arcadia. As part of the changes, some administrative functions previously run separately will be consolidated to improve efficiency, and some BHS retail stores will begin to carry Arcadia brands as concessions; this enables Arcadia to expand the presence of its brands without having to lease large numbers of new stores, and allows the firm to cut store costs by moving some operations from stand-alone stores into BHS locations. For example, in The Mall Bexleyheath
, the firm was able to introduce Wallis to the retail portfolio without having to lease a separate new store to do so, and was also able to close the existing Evans store and relocate its operations into BHS.
In late 2010 it emerged Arcadia was considering a further wide review of its property portfolio, similar to those undertaken under the "Townprint" and "BrandMAX" schemes, to look again at the firm's store distribution; this was sparked by the fact that several hundred of the firm's existing store leases expire over the coming three to five years. Analysts estimated that between 150 and 300 stores could be shut and replaced with new locations or integrated/combined stores, though the exact landscape of any changes is yet to be confirmed by the group.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
company that owns the high street
High Street
High Street, or the High Street, is a metonym for the generic name of the primary business street of towns or cities, especially in the United Kingdom. It is usually a focal point for shops and retailers in city centres, and is most often used in reference to retailing...
clothing retailers Burton
Burton (clothes retailer)
Burton is a large United Kingdom high street clothing retailer. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but is now part of the Arcadia Group.-History:...
, Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins
Dorothy Perkins, whose trading name was inspired by a rambler rose of the same name, is a large British women's clothing retailer, active mostly in the United Kingdom.- History :...
, Evans
Evans (clothing retailer)
Evans is a women's clothing retailer located in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They have over 300 stores around the UK selling plus-size clothing, lingerie, wide fitting shoes, swimwear and accessories.- Timeline :...
, Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which...
, Topman
Topman
TOPMAN is the stand-alone fashion business counterpart of Topshop that caters exclusively to men’s clothing. A part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, British Home Stores and Dorothy Perkins, Topman has a chain of high-street men's clothing stores located...
, Topshop
Topshop
Topshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
, Wallis and BHS, and the out of town chain Outfit
Outfit (retailer)
Outfit is a UK company which forms part of the Arcadia Group and began life in the 1990s. It sells a range of clothing, footwear and accessories for both men and woman....
, which sells lines from the other group chains. The group has more than 2,500 outlets in the UK, concessions in UK department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
s such as Debenhams
Debenhams
Debenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...
, Selfridges
Selfridges
Selfridges, AKA Selfridges & Co, is a chain of high end department stores in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge. The flagship store in London's Oxford Street is the second largest shop in the UK and was opened on 15 March 1909.More recently, three other stores have been...
and House of Fraser
House of Fraser
House of Fraser is a British department store group with over 60 stores across the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891 it was known as Fraser & Sons. The company grew steadily during the early 20th century, but after the Second...
, as well as several hundred franchises in other countries. Arcadia Group Ltd. is the largest business interest of retailing magnate Sir Philip Green
Philip Green
Sir Philip Green is a British businessman. Green was born into a Jewish family in 1952, beginning as a businessman at the age of 15. The first and last quoted company Green took lead of was "Amber Day", from which he stepped down as CEO and Chairman in 1992...
, and is owned by his Monaco tax-resident wife Tina
Tina Green
Christina, Lady Green is a Monaco-based, South African-born businesswoman.Married to British retail businessman Sir Philip Green, her second husband, Tina Green owns all the family shares in Jersey-registered Taveta Investments...
, via a holding company, for tax reasons.
Early history and pre-WW2 era
The Company was founded by 18-year-old Lithuanian immigrant Montague BurtonMontague Burton
Sir Montague Maurice Burton founded Burton, one of Great Britain's largest chains of clothes shops....
in Chesterfield
Chesterfield
Chesterfield is a market town and a borough of Derbyshire, England. It lies north of Derby, on a confluence of the rivers Rother and Hipper. Its population is 70,260 , making it Derbyshire's largest town...
in 1903 under the name of The Cross-Tailoring Company. Burton's initial operation - a men's clothing manufacture, tailoring and retailing operation - became the genesis for the current Burton Menswear chain, which remains part of the company to this day, albeit having moved away from traditional tailoring to mainstream men's off-peg casuals and formalwear line with shifting trends in fashion and clothing.
The firm's headquarters moved from Chesterfield to Leeds in 1910, and 'The Cross-Tailoring Company' had changed its name to 'Burton' by the time the First World War broke out in 1914.
The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
in 1929, by which time it had 400 stores, factories and mills.
The Company had a large factory in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
which was visited by the Princess Royal
Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood
The Princess Mary, Princess Royal and Countess of Harewood was a member of the British Royal Family; she was the third child and only daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. She was the sixth holder of the title of Princess Royal...
in 1934.
Post-war developments and expansion
After World War II Montague Burton offered men the chance to buy a full suit, which included jacket, trousers, waistcoat, shirt and underwear and became known as 'The Full MontyThe Full Monty (phrase)
The full monty is a British slang phrase of uncertain origin. It is generally used to mean "everything which is necessary, appropriate, or possible; ‘the works’", and has been in common usage in the north of England for many years; the 1982 Yellow Pages for Manchester listed both a "Full Monty...
'. In 1946 the Company acquired the Peter Robinson women's fashion chain. By 1952, the year of Montague Burton
Montague Burton
Sir Montague Maurice Burton founded Burton, one of Great Britain's largest chains of clothes shops....
's death, the Company was the largest multiple tailor in the world.
Burton was the official sponsor for the World Cup
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...
in 1966.
In the mid-60s the Peter Robinson chain was relaunched as Topshop. This was in response to the development of a new young fashion culture around Britain in the 1960s; Topshop became the company's home of young, modern, on-trend ladieswear, a role it continues to hold. The Topshop launch began with Topshop-branded departments within Peter Robinson stores in 1964, with the first standalone Topshop stores opened ten years later in 1974. Eventually the Peter Robinson name was dropped altogether.
In 1971 the Group acquired Evans, a major operator in the field of fashionable clothing for the larger-size female customer.
In the 70s, and as a complement to the suit business, the Group started to develop itself significantly in mainstream clothing retailing by beginning to target chains to precisely defined markets - for example it launched Topman for young men in 1970. This development capitalised on the success of Topshop in catering for a young, fashion-savvy audience, and reflected the growth in men's casual clothing, with formal-wear sales declining due to the trend for more casual general clothing.
The firm also expanded its horizons by acquiring businesses outside its fashion heartland, at one point owning stationery chain Ryman
Ryman
Ryman is the largest British stationery retailer, historically based in London, now based in its £100m headquarters in Crewe, Cheshire.-Formation:...
but later scaled back to focus principally on clothing.
In 1979 the Dorothy Perkins chain was acquired, enabling the Group to expand into the mainstream womenswear market, following the success of its previous ladieswear ventures (Topshop and Evans). The Dorothy Perkins chain has subsequently been positioned as the group's flagship ladieswear operation, focused towards a similar target audience as Burton is in menswear.
In 1984 the Group launched a new chain, Principles
Principles (retailer)
Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.The firm was launched by the Burton Group as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the yuppie, a new upmarket cultural movement, and power dressing was a key trend: at the time,...
, for fashion conscious women with a higher disposable income; this allowed the firm to capitalise on emerging new fashion and business trends of the 1980s, such as power dressing
Power dressing
Power dressing refers to a style of clothing and hair intended to make wearers seem authoritative and competent, especially in professional settings in business, law and government...
. Principles for Men was launched a year later, in 1985, following the success of the ladies' division.
Also in 1985 the Group acquired Debenhams
Debenhams
Debenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...
, then the largest department store group in the UK. The large store Browns of Chester, which had previously been part of the Burton group, was subsequently moved across to trade as part of the Debenhams chain, and remained part of the Debenhams unit following the unit's divestment (it is today the only Debenhams-owned store not branded under the Debenhams name).
The firm also purchased menswear firm Colliers, ultimately rolling this in to the Burton, Topman and Principles For Men chains.
1990s: reorganisation, launches and acquisitions
In 1993, spurred on by the recessionRecession
In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction, a general slowdown in economic activity. During recessions, many macroeconomic indicators vary in a similar way...
of the early 1990s which had led to declining sales across the clothing retail market, the Burton Group undertook a major review of its trading space portfolio. Under the banner of 'Townprint', the firm reviewed the location and branding of its stores in each town and city in which they operated. At the time of the review the Group was operating in the region of 1600 stores, some of which had been with the group for some years and some of which were no longer performing adequately. The ultimate result was that the Group ended the leases on around 380 of the outlets they were trading from at that point, though replaced over half of these (around 220 stores in all) with the lease of store units which the Group had not previously been trading from. Around 350 stores were transferred from one of the company's brands to another. As part of the Townprint programme, the firm began to roll out new ways of working, such as operating increasing numbers of combined stores, where several brands shared the same unit; these combinations (such as Topshop/Topman or Burton/Dorothy Perkins unit-shares) would continue to be developed through the 1990s and 2000s as a way of reducing overheads whilst maintaining geographical spread of the brands.
In 1996, the Group made its first move into home shopping with the acquisition of Innovations along with the Hawkshead brand in July 1996 and Racing Green in October 1996. Innovations and some related brands were then sold to the home shopping group Great Universal Stores
GUS (retailer)
GUS plc was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001...
in November 1997.
The decision to de-merge Debenhams and separate it from the rest of the Group was announced in July 1997: the plan was approved by shareholders in January 1998 and the de-merger took effect later that month. At that time Debenhams became a separate company with its own listing on the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
. It was at this point that the Group, until then still Burton Group plc, became Arcadia Group plc.
The late 1990s also saw the launch of a new experimental high-fashion menswear chain, SU214 (Style Union 214), which took its name from its flagship store at 214 Oxford Street in London. The chain aimed to capitalise on the growing demand for high-end casualwear and expand upon the group's presence in the young menswear market.
In June 1998 the Group acquired Wade-Smith, the Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
-based retailer of designer childrenswear, menswear and womenswear. The acquisition was primarily to allow Arcadia to expand its presence in the childrenswear market, which they had made little attempt at up to this point. New Wade Smith Jr stores opened in locations such as the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent.
In June 1999 Arcadia Group launched Zoom, an e-commerce and Internet Service Provider that forms a key part of the Group's multi-channel approach to retailing. Shortly after Zoom's launch, Associated Newspapers Ltd acquired a 50% stake in Zoom, allowing both partners to benefit from the increased joint marketing opportunities.
In July 1999 Arcadia Group increased its share of the UK womenswear market with the acquisition of the Sears
Sears plc
Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it was acquired by Sir Philip Green in 1999.-History:...
womenswear businesses, comprising the Warehouse, Wallis, Richards
Richard Shops
-History:Richard Shops was originally part of the clothes-selling empire United Drapery Stores, created in 1927 by the controversial Leeds-born businessman and philanthropist Jack Lyons...
, Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge
Miss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which...
and Outfit brands from the defunct Sears plc
Sears plc
Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The Company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but it was acquired by Sir Philip Green in 1999.-History:...
. Shortly afterwards, Arcadia chose to close down the underperforming Richards chain, though shops in suitable locations were rebranded under other Arcadia store brands. Arcadia continued to develop the Wallis, Miss Selfridge and Warehouse brands, and expanded significantly the Outfit out-of-town store chain, introducing other Arcadia brands to the stores and expanding the store network.
Post-millennium
In 2000, the firm undertook a strategy known internally as 'BrandMAX' under which underperforming brands were closed or scaled down. In some cases stores which were closed were replaced by other Arcadia properties. As part of BrandMAX, the Wade Smith Jr, Principles For Men and SU214 store brands ceased to trade and were absorbed as concessions into other group businesses (for instance, menswear chain SU214 was absorbed into Topman). Miss Selfridge was also reduced significantly in size (though gained a new London flagship store in the former SU214 flagship site) and all remaining standalone Topman stores were replaced by combined Topshop-Topman stores, a process of integration which had begun some years previously.In 2002, Arcadia Group PLC was bought by Taveta Investments, owned by Taveta Ltd based in Jersey. Taveta Ltd is owned by Philip Green's Family, the only director is Tina Green the wife of billionaire Philip Green
Philip Green
Sir Philip Green is a British businessman. Green was born into a Jewish family in 1952, beginning as a businessman at the age of 15. The first and last quoted company Green took lead of was "Amber Day", from which he stepped down as CEO and Chairman in 1992...
accordingly Arcadia Group became a private company and was delisted from the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
.
By the middle of October 2002, the company had sold some of its chains, including Principles, Warehouse, Racing Green and Hawkshead, to Rubicon Retail
Rubicon Retail
Rubicon Retail was a British retail group which traded between 2002 and 2006.The firm was formed in 2002 when a management buyout of several firms then owned by Arcadia Group took place. This resulted in high street chains Warehouse and Principles, and catalogue retailers Hawkshead and Racing...
for £35m. Those Outfit stores which were already retailing Principles and Warehouse clothing continued to do so by arrangement with the new owners. Arcadia also entered into discussions regarding the sale of the Wade Smith brand back to its previous owners.
In 2005, Sir Philip Green bought the UK retail stores of Etam
Etam UK
Etam UK was a British women's, retail clothing brand owned by the French firm Etam Developement.The brand included a subsidiary called Tammy which specialized in clothing for girls in their early teens....
and Tammy; these stores were converted into other Arcadia retail outlets, with Tammy clothing subsequently being retailed through BHS and Outfit
Outfit (retailer)
Outfit is a UK company which forms part of the Arcadia Group and began life in the 1990s. It sells a range of clothing, footwear and accessories for both men and woman....
stores. Some of the stores not retained by Arcadia were taken up by other fashion retail groups, with Monsoon acquiring a large number of the outlets.
In February 2009 it was announced that the BHS department store chain, also owned by the Greens, will be integrated into Arcadia. As part of the changes, some administrative functions previously run separately will be consolidated to improve efficiency, and some BHS retail stores will begin to carry Arcadia brands as concessions; this enables Arcadia to expand the presence of its brands without having to lease large numbers of new stores, and allows the firm to cut store costs by moving some operations from stand-alone stores into BHS locations. For example, in The Mall Bexleyheath
The Mall Bexleyheath
Broadway Shopping Centre, , is the principal covered shopping centre in the town centre of Bexleyheath and is the largest single covered shopping facility in the London Borough of Bexley.The centre opened in its current form in 1984, underwent an extensive refurbishment in 2007, and had...
, the firm was able to introduce Wallis to the retail portfolio without having to lease a separate new store to do so, and was also able to close the existing Evans store and relocate its operations into BHS.
In late 2010 it emerged Arcadia was considering a further wide review of its property portfolio, similar to those undertaken under the "Townprint" and "BrandMAX" schemes, to look again at the firm's store distribution; this was sparked by the fact that several hundred of the firm's existing store leases expire over the coming three to five years. Analysts estimated that between 150 and 300 stores could be shut and replaced with new locations or integrated/combined stores, though the exact landscape of any changes is yet to be confirmed by the group.
Current operations (A-Z)
- BHS - Department store, some stores carry other Arcadia brands as concessions
- BurtonBurton (clothes retailer)Burton is a large United Kingdom high street clothing retailer. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but is now part of the Arcadia Group.-History:...
- Dorothy PerkinsDorothy PerkinsDorothy Perkins, whose trading name was inspired by a rambler rose of the same name, is a large British women's clothing retailer, active mostly in the United Kingdom.- History :...
- EvansEvans (clothing retailer)Evans is a women's clothing retailer located in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They have over 300 stores around the UK selling plus-size clothing, lingerie, wide fitting shoes, swimwear and accessories.- Timeline :...
- Miss SelfridgeMiss SelfridgeMiss Selfridge is a nationwide UK high street store which began as the young fashion section of Selfridges department store in London in 1966. Miss Selfridge got its name when Charles Clore, the owner of Selfridges at the time, saw a window display in the Bonwit Teller store in New York which...
- OutfitOutfit (retailer)Outfit is a UK company which forms part of the Arcadia Group and began life in the 1990s. It sells a range of clothing, footwear and accessories for both men and woman....
- out-of-town stores carrying various brands, not a clothing brand in its own right - Tammy - sold within BHS and Outfit, no standalone stores
- TopmanTopmanTOPMAN is the stand-alone fashion business counterpart of Topshop that caters exclusively to men’s clothing. A part of the Arcadia Group, which also owns Burton, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Evans, British Home Stores and Dorothy Perkins, Topman has a chain of high-street men's clothing stores located...
- TopshopTopshopTopshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
- Wallis
Former operations (A-Z)
- DebenhamsDebenhamsDebenhams plc is a British retailer operating under a department store format in the UK, Ireland and Denmark, and franchise stores in other countries. The Company was founded in the eighteenth century as a single store in London and has now grown to around 160 shops...
- demerged into separate company in 1998 - EtamEtam UKEtam UK was a British women's, retail clothing brand owned by the French firm Etam Developement.The brand included a subsidiary called Tammy which specialized in clothing for girls in their early teens....
- closed shortly after purchase - Hawkshead - sold to Rubicon RetailRubicon RetailRubicon Retail was a British retail group which traded between 2002 and 2006.The firm was formed in 2002 when a management buyout of several firms then owned by Arcadia Group took place. This resulted in high street chains Warehouse and Principles, and catalogue retailers Hawkshead and Racing...
- Innovations - sold to GUS in 1997
- Peter Robinson - became TopshopTopshopTopshop is a British clothes retailer with shops in over 20 countries and online operations in a number of its markets. Its sales come primarily from women's clothing and fashion accessories...
- PrinciplesPrinciples (retailer)Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.The firm was launched by the Burton Group as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the yuppie, a new upmarket cultural movement, and power dressing was a key trend: at the time,...
- sold to Rubicon RetailRubicon RetailRubicon Retail was a British retail group which traded between 2002 and 2006.The firm was formed in 2002 when a management buyout of several firms then owned by Arcadia Group took place. This resulted in high street chains Warehouse and Principles, and catalogue retailers Hawkshead and Racing...
; now owned by Debenhams - PrinciplesPrinciples (retailer)Principles was a UK-based fashion retailer founded in 1984.The firm was launched by the Burton Group as an attempt to capitalise on the new modern trends in fashion; the mid-1980s was the boom era for the yuppie, a new upmarket cultural movement, and power dressing was a key trend: at the time,...
for Men - closed - Racing Green - sold to Rubicon Retail
- RichardsRichard Shops-History:Richard Shops was originally part of the clothes-selling empire United Drapery Stores, created in 1927 by the controversial Leeds-born businessman and philanthropist Jack Lyons...
- closed shortly after purchase - SU214 - closed
- Wade Smith - sold circa 2002
- Warehouse - sold to Rubicon Retail