industry retail genre department store fate administration founded 1912 founder thomas j hughes headquarters liverpool number of locations 18 57 at peak products home furnishing menswear woman s wear fragrance electricals toys revenue 266.7 million 2010 1 operating income 9.3 million 2010 1 profit 6.8 million 2010 1 owner lewis s home retail ltd number of employees 950 october 2014 website http www.tjhughes.co.uk tj hughes shop in liverpool tj hughes is a british discount department store brand which first emerged in liverpool in 1925 and had become a national chain with 57 shops by 2011 . as of 2016 the business consists of 18 shops located in england and scotland . contents 1 history 2 sales strategy 3 online 4 financial success 5 competition 6 references 7 external links history edit thomas j hughes set up a small shop on liverpool s london road . the store had a few assistants and thomas j hughes was the main shopkeeper overseeing everything within the business . in 1925 the large department store group owen owen saw the need to move out of their audley house site on london road into the new centre of liverpool at clayton square . the building was put up unsuccessfully for sale . the then chairman of owen owen duncan norman went to see the tj hughes shop . norman was so impressed that he agreed to let hughes run and expand his business in audley house for part ownership of the business under owen owen . tj hughes then became a department store . the business was expanded by owen owen until being sold in the 1980s . owen owen later went on to purchase lewis s another liverpool department store . the company floated on the london stock exchange in 1992 . it was later acquired by jjb sports in 2000 for 42 million before being sold again in a 56 million buyout backed by ppm capital in 2002 . 2 during the 1990s and 2000s tj hughes had taken over a number of premises formerly occupied by other retailers including allders ipswich c & a glasgow romford and hull house of fraser sheffield & eastbourne and various co operative group societies warrington bradford doncaster and crawley . after several years of static store numbers expansion picked up again with three new outlets opened during 2009 10 and a further four opened in the first ten months of 2010 11 . a number of the openings were in locations left vacant by woolworths . tj hughes refuted press speculation that it was looking to develop a 200 strong chain . citation needed tj hughes was sold to endless a turnaround specialist for an undisclosed sum in 2011 the 13th company in endless portfolio . endless bought tj hughes from silverfleet capital which had controlled the firm since 2003 . the sale followed reports that tj hughes had been hit by the withdrawal of credit insurance for its suppliers after a battle to secure working capital . tj hughes had grown by around 20 stores since its acquisition by silverfleet capital in 2003 . 3 on monday 27 june 2011 tj hughes limited announced that it intended to go into administration . tj hughes officially entered administration on thursday 30 june 2011 with ernst & young appointed as administrators putting 4000 jobs at risk . 4 the company launched a closing down sale in a bid to reduce stock levels . 5 a closed branch of tj hughes in bradford . ernst & young said it hoped to sell the company as a going concern saying it was very much business as usual but added that it could be difficult to sell all of the stores owing to the previous trading history of tj hughes . citation needed the news came three days after jane norman the women s wear chain also went into administration . there were reports of a number of prospective buyers including primark . 6 thursday 7 july 2011 ga europe acquired endless secured debt due from tj hughes and announced plans to work with administrators ernst & young to liquidate stock 7 from the retail chain s 57 stores . 8 friday 22 july 2011 tj hughes administrators ernst & young announced the company s liverpool distribution centre was to close making 116 employees redundant . 9 monday 1 august 2011 the tj hughes flagship store in liverpool was sold to speke based benross group who also bought three other stores saving 442 jobs . 10 lewis home retail also bought the brand name and website . thursday 4 august 2011 ernst & young announced the closure of 22 tj hughes stores throughout the united kingdom losing 1000 jobs . 11 store closures began on 10 august with shrewsbury closing its doors first . 12 tuesday 20 august 2011 ernst & young announced the remaining unsold tj hughes stores would close their doors on 31 august 2011 . benross group also bought the brand name and the remaining six stores continued to trade as tj hughes . 13 altogether a total of 6 of the 57 tj hughes stores were bought out of administration by lewis s home retail ltd part of the benross group . located in liverpool eastbourne glasgow newcastle upon tyne sheffield and widnes these stores continued to trade under the tj hughes brand . 14 since administration new or re opened tj hughes stores have also been opened in the following locations 2012 birkenhead 15 cannock middlesbrough 16 2013 coventry 17 2014 hartlepool 18 stretford 19 2015 bootle 20 bury 21 oldham 20 walsall 22 2016 chelmsford st helens 23 a reopening is also planned for maidstone . 22 24 tj hughes has stated that it may seek to open as many as 55 stores in total . 20 sales strategy edit tj hughes shop in sheffield in december 2005 tj hughes launched an online store through ebay with ebay claiming that the retailer was the first in the uk to sell its main products through the auction site . the store launched with 110 lines including dvd players digital cameras and perfumes . tj hughes said its ebay shop represented an opportunity to increase sales and brand awareness . 25 one of the retailer s advertising tactics was to feature relatives of famous celebrities in their advertisements . for example they used manchester united f.c. player wayne rooney s brother graeme rooney as part of an advertising campaign . 26 during 2007 the company unveiled its largest advertising campaign to date . this featured celebrities family members with recruits to the campaign including carol vorderman s mother jonathan ross s mother and robbie williams father . the aim of the somewhat unusual series of ads was apparently to eschew passing on the costs of celebrity endorsement to customers which tj hughes claims is the case for a number of its competitors . online edit tj hughes was a late runner in the e commerce era establishing an information website for investors and customers in 1999 2000 . although a new site was launched in 2004 this continued to offer only basic information such as current offers and store locations . in spite of this the company reported that this site received some 17 000 hits a month which prompted them to look at the introduction of e commerce . this was introduced on a trial basis in the run up to christmas 2005 and offered 150 seasonal gifts and homewares lines . an encouraging performance resulted in the trial being extended with the company subsequently increasing the range of merchandise offered online and by 2011 the company offered an extensive range of products on its website . the tj hughes website designed by local digital agency yoma 27 was ranked 108 004 worldwide and 5 237 in the united kingdom according to alexa . 28 financial success edit former tj hughes shop in scunthorpe tj hughes saw gross profits soar almost 50 % a year from 3.6 m in 2003 increasing to 7.9 m in 2004 29 with a jump to 12m in 2006 . 30 throughout 2007 tj hughes s pre tax profits were 5.1 million in the year to 26 january up from 1.2 million the year before . operating profit soared 299 per cent to 2.9 million . 31 in january 2010 accounts showed pre tax profits increased by more than 1.5 m to 6.8 m. that was achieved on sales of 266.7 m an annualised rise of 4 % . although the last full financial year before ms tennant was appointed to january 2007 showed pre tax profits of 1.2 m they rose to 5.1 m in the year to january 2008 . this was followed by profits of 5.3 m the following year . competition edit the demise of woolworths was seen to create significant opportunities in the homewares market although other mixed goods discounters such as b & m and wilkinson which have some overlap in terms of product offer have also been expanding rapidly in a bid to gain some of this market share both on the high street and increasingly in out of town locations original research . this is believed to be part of the reason as to why tj hughes entered administration . 32 american retailer t.j. maxx which also sells discounted clothing and housewares modified its name to t.k. maxx to avoid confusion with t j hughes when it opened its first british store in 1994 . it subsequently used the t.k. maxx name for its other european operations . 33 references edit a b c tj hughes grows again after fourfold profit rise . liverpool daily echo . 28 october 2010 . retrieved 28 october 2010 . fletcher richard 15 november 2003 . ppm sells oasis as it grabs tj hughes in 55m deal . the daily telegraph . london . retrieved 18 october 2008 . management team buys liverpool retailer tj hughes with backing from turnaround specialist endless . liverpoolecho . 25 march 2011 . retrieved 25 march 2011 . discount store tj hughes now in the hands of administrators . the guardian . 30 june 2011 . retrieved 30 june 2011 . tj hughes launches quick fire sale . tj hughes . 12 july 2011 . retrieved 14 july 2011 . tj hughes stock sell off announced by administrator . bbc news . 7 july 2011 . retrieved 7 july 2011 . debt due from tj hughes . bheta . 7 july 2011 . retrieved 7 july 2011 . tj hughes stock sell off announced by administrator . bbc news . 7 july 2011 . retrieved 7 july 2011 . tj hughes warehouse closes making 116 redundant . liverpool echo . 22 july 2011 . retrieved 22 july 2011 . tj hughes stores to stay open saving 442 jobs . the sun . 2 august 2011 . retrieved 2 august 2011 . tj hughes sheds 1 000 jobs as 22 stores close . retail gazette . 4 august 2011 . retrieved 4 august 2011 . tj hughes sets closure dates for 22 stores next week . bbc news . 4 august 2011 . retrieved 4 august 2011 . administrators close last of tj hughes stores . housewareslive . 20 august 2011 . retrieved 20 august 2011 . newcastle s tj hughes is saved but middlesbrough s is to close within days . soult s retail view . 2011 08 13 . tj hughes store reopens in birkenhead . bbc news . 2012 10 24 . middlesbrough s tj hughes confirms 3 october reopening date with birkenhead to follow . soult s retail view . 2012 09 27 . tj tj hughes to reopen at its old site in coventry s lower precinct . coventry telegraph . 2013 10 18 . tj hughes store chain bringing 70 new jobs to hartlepool . hartlepool mail . 2014 08 12 . tj hughes to