industry retail genre department store founded 1881 founder john elmes beale headquarters bournemouth united kingdom number of locations 29 owner arcadia group 2015 2016 hilco storehouse 1994 2000 kesa group 2000 2003 kingfisher group 2003 2007 baugur 2007 2008 deloite 2008 2010 opcapita 2010 2011 tony brown 2011 2012 dave whelan 2012 2013 ken morrison 2013 2015 subsidiaries j e beale plc website www.beales.co.uk beales is an english department store chain currently operating 29 branches . the flagship store beales in bournemouth was established as the fancy fair by john elmes beale in 1881 and is currently the biggest department store in dorset . the company was listed on the london stock exchange until its private equity takeover . contents 1 history 2 current operations 3 department store locations 3.1 current locations 3.2 former locations 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit beales was established in 1881 by john elmes beale when he opened a store in bournemouth . whitakers the bolton department store opened in 1829 was bought by beales in 1996 with the name changed to beales in 2011 . 1 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 . 2 in august 2010 beales expanded further by acquiring the westgate department store in rochdale from the anglia regional co operative society . 3 as of 5 april 2011 beales acquired 19 additional westgate stores securing its long term future . 4 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 . 5 in addition a branch in skipton closed in november 2012 a branch in cinderford closed in july 2013 1 . in summer 2014 the large harrogate store closed for re development of the land by the landlord current operations edit 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 edit beales bournemouth current locations edit abingdon formerly westgate beccles formerly westgate bedford formerly e braggins & son bishop auckland formerly westgate bolton formerly whitakers bournemouth chipping norton formerly westgate diss formerly westgate hexham formerly robbs horsham formerly allders closed keighley formerly sunwin house and latterly westgate kendal formerly j r taylor and originally musgroves king s lynn formerly westgate to close 2016 closed lowestoft formerly westgate mansfield formerly westgate peterborough formerly westgate poole formerly brians branding as ganner beales carter redcar formerly westgate closing down rochdale formerly sunwin house and latterly westgate closing down saffron walden formerly westgate closing down skegness formerly westgate southport formerly broadbents & boothroyds and originally boothroyds spalding formerly westgate st neots formerly westgate closing down tonbridge formerly bentalls winchester to close 2016 closed wisbech formerly westgate worthing formerly bentalls yeovil formerly denners former locations edit beales in harrogate in 2013 . this branch closed in 2014 and was demolished in 2015 . cinderford formerly westgate closed july 2013 ealing formerly bentalls closed october 2007 harrogate formerly sunwin house and latterly westgate closed 2014 . building demolished 2015 maidstone beales outlet and formerly a tj hughes & owen owen closed june 2013 skipton formerly sunwin house and latterly westgate closed november 2012 walton on thames formerly grant warden closed january 2006 see also edit list of department stores of the united kingdom references edit bolton town cenre department store beales in deansgate could be forced to close because of high rents bolton evening news p. 8 march 2016 . retrieved 27 may 2016 . 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 edit wikimedia commons has media related to beales department store . beales website v t e department stores of the united kingdom beales boswells of oxford british home stores w j daniel & co. debenhams fenwick fortnum & mason harrods harvey nichols hatchers hoopers house of fraser jarrolds john lewis liberty marks & spencer morleys selfridges retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title beales department store & oldid 744371540 categories companies based in bournemouthdepartment stores of the united kingdomhidden categories commons category with page title same as on wikidata 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 in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 14 october 2016 at 19 46 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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