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British Home Stores
British Home Stores (BHS) is a British-founded Emirati department store retailer that primarily sells clothing and household items. It was established as a variety store in 1928 by a group of American entrepreneurs, and grew to be one of the UK's largest department store chains which traded until 2016.
In May 2000, the retailer was purchased by Sir Philip Green and taken private. The company later became part of Green's Arcadia Group in 2009. In March 2015, the retailer was sold to the Retail Acquisitions Ltd consortium for the nominal sum of £1, following sustained losses. In April 2016, British Home Stores entered administration, and the final 22 UK stores closed on 28 August 2016.
In September 2016, BHS.com was relaunched for the UK market by the Al Maya Group, based in Qatar (now based in Dubai), who had purchased the British Home Stores intellectual property from the administrators, and continued to operate physical BHS stores across the Middle East, Africa and other parts of Europe, for a time. In June 2018, Al Maya Group closed BHS.com to focus on other interests. In October 2018, BHS.com was relaunched again by the Manchester-based firm Litecraft Group Ltd, using the BHS brand under license from Al Maya Group, to mainly sell their range of lighting products.
As of June 2025, Al Maya Group operates one final surviving physical British Home Stores location at the Landmark Mall in Doha, Qatar.
British Home Stores was founded in 1928 by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs 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, and by 1929 the price limit had been lifted to five shillings to allow the business to offer more goods.
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.
The company expanded in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a member of the FTSE 100 when that index was launched in 1984. Stores were opened in the developing wave of indoor shopping centres, 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; Sainsbury's took full control of SavaCentre in 1989, and later converted the stores to the Sainsbury's branding.
A downturn in business in the early 1980s was countered 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. Such stores, not directly owned by the BHS company but supplied with BHS products, have operated in several places in Europe and the Middle East. The Tammy brand was available as a separate franchise.[citation needed]
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British Home Stores
British Home Stores (BHS) is a British-founded Emirati department store retailer that primarily sells clothing and household items. It was established as a variety store in 1928 by a group of American entrepreneurs, and grew to be one of the UK's largest department store chains which traded until 2016.
In May 2000, the retailer was purchased by Sir Philip Green and taken private. The company later became part of Green's Arcadia Group in 2009. In March 2015, the retailer was sold to the Retail Acquisitions Ltd consortium for the nominal sum of £1, following sustained losses. In April 2016, British Home Stores entered administration, and the final 22 UK stores closed on 28 August 2016.
In September 2016, BHS.com was relaunched for the UK market by the Al Maya Group, based in Qatar (now based in Dubai), who had purchased the British Home Stores intellectual property from the administrators, and continued to operate physical BHS stores across the Middle East, Africa and other parts of Europe, for a time. In June 2018, Al Maya Group closed BHS.com to focus on other interests. In October 2018, BHS.com was relaunched again by the Manchester-based firm Litecraft Group Ltd, using the BHS brand under license from Al Maya Group, to mainly sell their range of lighting products.
As of June 2025, Al Maya Group operates one final surviving physical British Home Stores location at the Landmark Mall in Doha, Qatar.
British Home Stores was founded in 1928 by a group of U.S. entrepreneurs 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, and by 1929 the price limit had been lifted to five shillings to allow the business to offer more goods.
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.
The company expanded in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a member of the FTSE 100 when that index was launched in 1984. Stores were opened in the developing wave of indoor shopping centres, 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; Sainsbury's took full control of SavaCentre in 1989, and later converted the stores to the Sainsbury's branding.
A downturn in business in the early 1980s was countered 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. Such stores, not directly owned by the BHS company but supplied with BHS products, have operated in several places in Europe and the Middle East. The Tammy brand was available as a separate franchise.[citation needed]