Talk:Shop Direct Group

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Do Littlewoods own the JMB brand of electrical goods too?

I believe they do, with JMB standing for John Moores Brand. Citation may be required though as I'm not 100% sure.... futhermore, I think the article as it currently stands needs some serious expansion. It moves from the 1930s to 2001 in a couple of sentences! I think the article would benefit from a number of subsections like Early History, Catalogue Venture, Littlewoods Index, etc etc, with each section having considerable and comprehensive content beneath. Once the article has padded a little more, I would urge editors to make these changes. Thanks, Jhamez84 09:39, 19 April 2006 (UTC)

Many Littlewoods shops are now Primark - were they bought out? and should this be mentioned?

Around 120 stores were sold to Associated British Foods, which owns Primark, which has taken on around 80 of the stores, with the others being sold on in turn to retaillers such as New Look. Having divested the high street presence, the Littlewoods Shop Direct Group remains a private company (entirely separate from ABF or Primark) and has focussed its activities on online and home shopping.

Did Littlewoods ever have a branch in the West End of London? --

Yes, two branches actually on oxford street. One was at the marble arch end underneath the Thistle Hotel, which is now a branch of Next and the other which was the company's flagship store at Oxford Circus, which is now home to three stores, Superdrug, Borders and again a branch of Next. There were also numerous branches around many London Boroughs.

The Marble Arch store was sold as part of a package of 22 large Littlewoods stores in the mid 1990's, many from major towns and cities across the country, to Marks & Spencer. Marks & Spencer planned to open furniture only stores in many of these locations but it never did trade from the marble arch site. Around the same time the Oxford Circus store ceased trading as a Littlewoods store and was broken up into the three units of today. The building was an actual part of the company's property portfolio, not rented and occupied a prime site in some of the most expensive retail space in the world. In the face of poor sales and high business rents, the decision was taken to cease trading on the site and benefit from rental income from other retailers.Wrh1973 19:46, 28 September 2006 (UTC)