Beales (department store)
| Public | |
| Industry | Retail |
| Genre | Department Store |
| Founded | 1881 |
| Founder | John Elmes Beale |
| Headquarters | Bournemouth, United Kingdom |
Number of locations | 30 |
| Subsidiaries | J E Beale plc |
| Website | www.beales.co.uk |
Beales is an English department store chain, currently operating 30 branches. The flagship store, Beales in Bournemouth, was established as The Fancy Fair by John Elmes Beale in 1881. It is currently the biggest department store in Dorset.
The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange.
History
Beales was established in 1881 by John Elmes Beale when he opened a store in Bournemouth.
The group acquired the Bentalls department stores in Ealing (closed October 2007), Tonbridge and Worthing from Fenwick in 2002 and closed its Walton-on-Thames store in January 2006.
A new Beales store opened in Horsham in September 2006 in premises formerly occupied by Allders.
On 4 June 2010 Beales acquired the Robbs department store in Hexham from Vergo Retail which was in administration, for £250,000.[1]
In August 2010 Beales expanded further by acquiring the Westgate Department Store in Rochdale from the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society.[2]
As of 5 April 2011, Beales acquired 19 additional Westgate stores, securing its long-term future.[3]
In May 2012 Beales announced it would be opening an outlet store in the old T.J. Hughes store in The Mall Maidstone. This store closed in June 2013.[4] In addition a branch in Skipton closed in November 2012, a branch in Cinderford closed in July 2013 and the Beales store in Tonbridge will close in the near future as a result of the expansion of an adjacent Sainsbury's supermarket.
In summer 2014, the large Harrogate store closed for re-development of the land by the landlord
Current operations
Beales is a member of Associated Independent Stores (a buying group) which enables Beales to benefit from the cost savings of buying textiles and other non-food goods in bulk.
Department store locations
Current locations
- Abingdon (formerly Westgate)
- Beccles (formerly Westgate)
- Bedford
- Bishop Auckland (formerly Westgate)
- Bolton (formerly Whitakers)
- Bournemouth
- Chipping Norton (formerly Westgate)
- Diss (formerly Westgate)
- Hexham (formerly Robbs)
- Horsham (formerly Allders)
- Keighley (formerly Sunwin House and latterly Westgate)
- Kendal
- King's Lynn (formerly Westgate)
- Lowestoft (formerly Westgate)
- Mansfield (formerly Westgate)
- Peterborough (formerly Westgate)
- Poole
- Redcar (formerly Westgate)
- Rochdale (formerly Sunwin House and latterly Westgate)
- Saffron Walden (formerly Westgate)
- Skegness (formerly Westgate)
- Southport (formerly Broadbents & Boothroyds)
- Spalding (formerly Westgate)
- St Neots (formerly Westgate)
- Tonbridge (formerly Bentalls, planned to close due to extension of the Sainsbury's supermarket)
- Wisbech (formerly Westgate)
- Worthing (formerly Bentalls)
- Yeovil
Former locations
- Cinderford (formerly Westgate, closed July 2013)
- Ealing (formerly Bentalls, closed October 2007)
- Maidstone (Beales Outlet and formerly a TJ Hughes, closed June 2013)
- Skipton (formerly Sunwin House and latterly Westgate, closed November 2012)
- Walton-on-Thames (formerly Grant-Warden, closed January 2006)
- Winchester (closed 2015)
- Harrogate (formerly Sunwin House and latterly Westgate, closed 2014 - Demolished 2015
See also
List of department stores of the United Kingdom
References
- ↑ Amy Shields (4 June 2010). "Beales acquires Robbs of Hexham". Retail Week.
- ↑ "Beales acquires Rochdale department store". HousewaresLive.Net. 9 August 2010.
- ↑ Amy Shields; Nicola Harrison (5 April 2011). "Beales to acquire 19 department stores". Drapers.
- ↑ "Beales department store to close in Maidstone". Kent Online. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
External links
| ||||||