British arm of an American company
1909 November 05th. First store in the UK founded at Liverpool. William Lawrence Stephenson was offered the position of director of the UK operation.
WW1 By the start of the war there were forty stores in the Uk
1923 There were 130 branches, and William Lawrence Stephenson became managing director.
1930 The 400th store was opened at Southport, Lancashire,
1934 The 600th store was opened, in Wallington, Surrey
1953 The 800th store was opened at Wilton Road, Victoria, London
1958 The 1,000th branch (known as "Portslade" to distinguish it from the existing Hove branch) opened in Boundary Road, Hove.
1960s At the peak there were 1,141 stores in the UK
1980 Acquired B&Q
1982 A large part of the shareholding in the company was acquired by Paternoster Stores, a consortium led by Charterhouse Group but which lacked any property companies or retail groups; it announced it had no intention of asset stripping.[1]. The name was changed to Woolworth Holdings.
1984 Acquired Comet
1987 Acquire Superdrug
1989 The name of the company was changed to Kingfisher
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Times, Oct 01, 1982