ltd type private limited company industry retail founded 1947 headquarters langholm dumfries and galloway scotland area served united kingdom key people drew stevenson founder david stevenson first chairman proprietor of first retail store philip day chief executive products clothing gifts and souvenirs parent the edinburgh woollen mill group ltd subsidiaries jane norman peacocks ponden home website www.ewm.co.uk edinburgh woollen mill ewm is a langholm based retailer specialising in clothing along with interests in homewares and destination shopping for tourists . the company s core edinburgh woollen mill stores have traditionally targeted men and women over the age of 40 1 but the business has expanded into new markets in recent years most notably through the acquisition of value fashion retailer peacocks in 2012 . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded in 1946 by drew stevenson as the langholm dyeing and finishing company dyeing wool yarn to order . his eldest son david until recently the chairman of the ewm group opened the first retail store in randolph place edinburgh in 1970 . in 1972 the first english store was opened in carlisle . having been owned by several equity holdings over the previous decade the company was bought out by the newly formed ewm group and was then subject to a secondary management takeover in 2002 led by the current chief executive phillip day . in 2011 the group bought jane norman out of administration having bought ponden mills and merged it with 80 stores bought from the collapsed rosebys home furnishings store to create ponden home . on 22 february 2012 it was announced that ewm had purchased the peacocks clothing retail brand along with 388 stores and concessions its headquarters and logistics functions . 2 3 although over 200 stores were not acquired at this time the chain has embarked on a programme of expansion since . in 2016 ewm purchased the austin reed brand the british fashion retailer founded in 1900 ewm placed jane norman into administration in june 2014 but retained the brand and stock to sell as an online only business . 4 operations edit the edinburgh woollen mill group ltd ewm group is now the holding company for three core brands edinburgh woollen mill jane norman and peacocks . as of spring 2016 the group operates close to a thousand stores in the uk comprising 265 edinburgh woollen mill stores 5 479 peacocks stores 6 107 ponden home stores 7 88 tourist shops and visitor centres trading under various fascias 5 e.g. james pringle weavers 27 destination sites combining all the group s concepts 5 e.g. masson mill a number of tourist attractions including the scottish deer centre in fife and the scottish wool centre in perthshire . the peacocks brand is also franchised internationally . 8 references edit edinburgh woollen mill peacocks hq saved in buyout deal but 3 000 jobs lost . 22 february 2012 . peacocks takeover edinburgh woollen mill buy retailer but 3 100 jobs lost . bbc news . 22 february 2012 . wood zoe 24 june 2014 . fashion retailer jane norman stores placed in administration . the guardian . retrieved 31 december 2014 . a b c about us the edinburgh woollen mill . retrieved 2 may 2016 . store finder peacocks . retrieved 2 may 2016 . store finder ponden home . retrieved 2 may 2016 . peacocks international franchise peacocks . retrieved 2 may 2016 . external links edit official website labour behind the label on edinburgh woollen mill retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title edinburgh woollen mill & oldid 742694983 categories clothing retailers of the united kingdomretail companies of scotlandcompanies based in the scottish bordersclothing companies established in 19471947 establishments in scotlandscottish brands navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 5 october 2016 at 06 36 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view