british home stores former type private industry retail fate closed under administration insolvency successor bhs.com founded brixton london united kingdom 1928 defunct 28 august 2016 headquarters marylebone road london united kingdom number of locations 74 international august 2016 all 164 uk stores closed following the liquidation of the chain key people philip duffy benjamin wiles administrators darren topp managing director products clothing homeware electronics furniture entertainment groceries beauty & fragrance and restaurant owner retail acquisitions ltd. in administration controlled by duff & phelps and frp advisory number of employees 11 000 2016 1 slogan modern living . made easy . website www.bhs.co.uk archived 28 august 2016 after closure british home stores commonly abbreviated to bhs and legally named bhs ltd was a british department store chain with branches mainly located in high streets or shopping centres primarily selling clothing and household items . it was founded in 1928 by a group of u.s. entrepreneurs . 2 in its later years the company began to expand into furniture electronics entertainment convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products . the company had 164 stores throughout the united kingdom at the time it entered administration and 74 international stores across 18 separate territories . 3 bhs was previously a constituent of the ftse 100 index but was bought by sir philip green in 2000 and taken private . the company became part of green s arcadia group in 2009 . on 12 march 2015 bhs was sold to the consortium retail acquisitions ltd for a nominal price of 1 . 4 on 25 april 2016 it was confirmed that the chain had entered administration following the failure to bring an estimated 60 million into the business required to safeguard its future . 5 on 2 june 2016 it was announced that the company would be wound down following failed attempts to find a buyer . 6 the website was closed on 25 july 2016 and all stores had closed by 28 august 2016 bringing a close to trading after 88 years . the overseas franchises and bhs.co.uk was sold during the administration period and will continue to trade . on the 29th september 2016 bhs re branded online as the british home store as they re opened the website and now trade online only . contents 1 history 1.1 origins 1.2 expansion 1.3 takeover by philip green 1.4 return to british home stores 1.5 leadership changes 1.6 sale and restructuring 1.7 administration 2 products 2.1 furniture 2.2 electronics 2.3 food store 3 international franchises 4 see also 5 references history edit origins edit british home stores was founded in 1928 by a group of u.s. entrepreneurs 2 who wanted to follow the successful model set by woolworths . they did not want go into direct competition with woolworths so set their highest price at a shilling . the first store opened in brixton 2 but by 1929 the price limit had been lifted to five shillings to allow the business to offer more goods . 7 the business expanded by opening further branches all offering small cafeterias and grocery departments and in 1933 the business went public . after the war the business continued to grow and by the end of the 1960s had 94 stores nationwide . 7 expansion edit a bhs branch in pre 1995 branding seen in darlington in 2009 . the company expanded in the 1970s and 1980s including the opening of stores in the newly developing wave of indoor shopping malls such as broadway shopping centre and lakeside shopping centre . a joint venture was launched with supermarket retailer sainsbury s to create hypermarkets using the savacentre brand . 8 sainsbury s took full control of savacentre in 1989 and has more recently converted the stores to the sainsbury s branding . a downturn in business in the early 1980s was fought with a revamp of the stores and the selling of goods with higher profit margins . the company closed its only overseas store in dublin ireland during this time although there was a rapidly aborted re entry in 1996 via a franchise store in dublin s jervis centre . in 1985 the first overseas franchise store opened in gibraltar . 9 such stores not directly owned by the bhs company itself have operated over europe and the middle east . 10 in 1986 bhs merged with habitat and mothercare to form storehouse plc. 2 soon afterwards the british home stores registered company name and branding across its shops was replaced with bhs later bhs and since reverted to the all caps bhs which the company used in addition to the full british home stores name prior to the full rebrand and a new corporate logo . the exception was in stores that displayed a historic fascia such as that in edinburgh s princes street which continued to feature the british home stores name in its original roman type etched into the granite shop front . british home stores like many other major retailers has followed a trend of opening stores at out of town locations since the 1980s . one of these is the two level store at merry hill shopping centre in the west midlands which formed part of an enterprise zone . this store opened on 14 november 1989 ultimately replacing the store in nearby dudley which closed in june 1990 after a directly related sharp fall in turnover . the nearby west bromwich store also closed around the same time its fortunes also affected by the merry hill development and smaller developments around nearby oldbury which had begun with the savacentre hypermarket in 1980 . 11 takeover by philip green edit logo used from 1995 to 2010 a branch in 1995 2010 branding seen in wakefield in 2013 . in the mid 1990s the brand saw a further reinvention under guidance from retail design house 20 20 . the new look was showcased with the launch of the millennium concept shopfit initially at the grafton centre cambridge now simply called the grafton during 1995 . with its softer bhs signature logo and warm interior lighting the concept attempted with varying degrees of success to meet the needs of the modern more sophisticated female shopper . during the late 1990s the stores which formed storehouse plc fell on hard times ; bhs and mothercare were the worst affected . following a number of years of tough trading philip green bought bhs from storehouse plc in may 2000 for 200 million . he then changed the company from public plc to private ltd . in 2002 green then went on to acquire the arcadia group of high street retailers which includes topshop burton evans dorothy perkins and wallis among others to form britain s second largest clothes retailer after marks and spencer . 12 alan smith chairman of storehouse at the time of the bhs sale commented he philip green had a crystal clear vision and strategy . he had the guts to do the deal to make it work when nobody else thought he could . 13 return to british home stores edit in may 2005 green owner of bhs purchased etam uk from its french owner etam development . 14 the etam uk brands included etam amelie may and tammy . the girls fashion retailer tammy was the strongest brand in terms of sales and consumer recognition . for this reason and to help improve girls perception of bhs as a whole from early september 2005 stand alone stores were closed and the brand integrated into bhs stores . a now closed branch in british home stores branding in kirkstall leeds in 2005 bhs resurrected its british home stores fascia more than 20 years after it had disappeared from the uk high street . 15 the move followed the purchase of several former allders at home sites from the defunct department store chain . these projects were designed purely to build upon the success of the homewares and lighting that bhs stores currently offered and to tap into new areas of business such as furniture curtains rugs and wall art . brands sold included denby maxwell williams typhoon brabantia terence conran and jasper conran . citation needed green s wife a monaco resident received a 1.2 billion dividend . 16 in early 2006 green considered a sale of the business contacting rivals including asda and debenhams . a joint venture was also considered as an option alongside an outright sale but did not progress due to the tough condition of the market at the time . 17 on 30 may 2007 there were rumours of talks with icelandic retail investor baugur group regarding a sale of the chain and that green was hoping to raise around 450 million from selling the chain which would then be used towards the continuation of arcadia s topshop international roll out . analysts said green was in a dilemma over whether he should sell the chain to rivals of his other arcadia chains . 18 on 27 february 2009 it was announced that the company would be integrated into the arcadia group . central support functions were merged and selected bhs stores housed selected arcadia brands ; for example in july 2009 bhs stores in solihull in the west midlands and bexleyheath in south london 19 both opened evans and wallis concessions . in august 2009 the canterbury branch opened wallis and evans concessions within the store . other stores with arcadia insertions include tunbridge wells oxford peterborough watford kilmarnock nottingham camberley norwich and aberdeen . leadership changes edit logo used from 2010 to 2015 2010 2013 variant had no stripe mike goring was appointed managing director to the chain in may 2009 and in july jacquie gray was appointed creative director . in 2010 bhs changed its logo resurrecting the uppercase form of the abbreviation that had not been used since the storehouse rebrand and the later rebrand in the 1990s . a new e commerce website was launched and a new store design that has gradually been introduced across the estate . mike goring left bhs in 2012 to take up the position of retail director for debenhams . 20 after he left former marks and spencer menswear trading director richard price was appointed managing director . 21 jacquie gray left in 2014 . in january 2015 green confirmed that he was considering selling the company following sustained losses and that he had received a number of approaches . 22 sale and restructuring edit on 12 march 2015 it was announced that bhs had been sold to retail acquisitions for a nominal price of 1 . 23 it was also confirmed that richard price had left his post as managing director for a position with the clothing arm of tesco ; former bhs chief operating officer darren topp was confirmed as the interim chief executive . 24 shortly after the takeover a total of 51 out of the company s 171 stores were reported as being under threat of closure . 25 a branch with post 2015 branding seen in lincoln in 2015 . in september 2015 bhs owners retail acquisitions announced another rebrand as part of a 60m rejuvenation plan which resulted in the full british home stores name being resurrected on the high street for the first time since 1986 . a programme of modernising stores with the new branding was announced while plans to roll out food halls were to continue . 26 by early 2016 periodic store closures had seen the company withdraw entirely from several city centres including bath 27 cardiff carlisle 28 oxford 27 reading 29 and southampton . 30 plans were also being made to reduce the size of the flagship oxford street branch by leasing excess space to other retailers . 31 in march 2016 the company sought a company voluntary arrangement cva to allow it to restructure the business . 32 as part of its application