Soult's Retail View

Newcastle’s TJ Hughes is saved – but Middlesbrough’s is to close within days

Graham Soult August 13, 2011 Department Stores, Property, Retail History, Woolworths 12 Comments

Tags: Bainbridge, Benross Group, Binns, Bury, Captain Cook Square, Derby, Eastbourne, Glasgow, Grainger Street, House of Fraser, Lewis's, Lewis's Home Retail, Lichfield, Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Nuneaton, Sheffield, Sunderland, TJ Hughes, Widnes, Woolworths

Newcastle's TJ Hughes (8 Aug 2011)

There was good news for Newcastle city centre earlier this week, with the announcement that the TJ Hughes store in Grainger Street had been sold, preventing the loss of 76 jobs. However, the … Continue Reading

As Clas Ohlson pledges “long-term commitment” to UK, I check out the Leeds store

Graham Soult February 09, 2011 Financial, Home and DIY, Online, Overseas, Property, Specialist Retailers 2 Comments

Tags: Allders, Best Buy, Briggate, Broadgate, Cardiff, Clas Ohlson, Doncaster, Klas Balkow, Leeds, Lewis's, Norwich

Clas Ohlson, Leeds (21 Jan 2011)

Things have been pretty quiet on the Clas Ohlson front since the Swedish hardware retailer announced the latest stage of its UK expansion, back in August. Those new stores in Cardiff, Doncaster and Norwich have subsequently opened, just before Christmas, but there’s no news yet on where the next additions to Clas … Continue Reading

Lewis’s Grotto brings festive cheer to Liverpool

Graham Soult December 24, 2010 Department Stores, Home and DIY, Independent Stores, Retail History No Comments

Tags: Christmas, David Lewis, George Henry Lee, Le Bon Marché, Lewis's, Liverpool, Liverpool One, Rapid, Vergo Retail

Lewis's Grotto 2010

With the collapse of Lewis’s and Robbs owner Vergo Retail being one of the year’s major stories at Soult’s Retail View, it seems fitting to mark the festive season with a warming good news story that has emerged from the retailer’s ashes.

For 130 years, generations of locals had visited Santa in his magical grotto at Lewis’s department store in Liverpool, but it seemed that the institution of Lewis’s Grotto would … Continue Reading

Beales pursues Robbs takeover, while The Range owner eyes other stores

Graham Soult May 31, 2010 Department Stores, Property 7 Comments

Tags: Beales, Big W, Chris Dawson, Derrys, Dovercourt, Empire Direct, Hexham, Homemaker, Lewis's, Liverpool, MCR, MFI, Plymouth, Robbs, The Range, Vergo Retail

Closing down sale at Robbs in Hexham (30 May 2010)

As the uncertainty over the future of the Vergo Retail store empire continues, potential suitors for some of the stores are starting to emerge. Here are the latest happenings…

In Liverpool’s Ranelagh Street, Lewis’s department store … Continue Reading

Robbs and Joplings owner Vergo Retail in administration

Graham Soult May 11, 2010 Department Stores 9 Comments

Tags: Adams, David Thompson, Ethel Austin, Hexham, Joplings, Lewis's, MCR, Owen Owen, Robbs, Sunderland, Vergo Retail

The iconic Joplings store in Sunderland

Department and home store retailer Vergo Retail has gone into administration, placing a question mark over the future of the 19-store business – including the iconic Robbs department store in Hexham and Joplings in Sunderland.

Sarah Bell and Steven Muncaster, partners at MCR, have been appointed joint administrators, with the stores set to trade as normal while the … Continue Reading

Vergo Retail develops online presence

Graham Soult February 16, 2010 Brands, Co-operatives, Department Stores, Independent Stores, Online No Comments

Tags: East of England Co-op, Homemaker, Joplings, Lewis's, Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society, Robbs, Vergo Retail

Screenshot of holding page (15 Feb 2010)

Google ‘Vergo Retail’, and the likelihood is that you’ll currently find Soult’s Retail View among the top few search results. Indeed, since this blog launched in July, five of the top ten searches that people have used to find the site have related to the Liverpool-based department store operator, with … Continue Reading

Retailers needs a web presence that informs and inspires

Graham Soult August 27, 2009 Department Stores, Online, Technology 4 Comments

Tags: Amazon.co.uk, Beales, Bentalls, Bracknell, Colchester, department store, ecommerce, Fenwick, Ikea, John Lewis, Kingston-upon-Thames, Lewis's, Liverpool, Morpeth, Newcastle, online marketing, Play.com, Rutherford & Co, web usability, Williams & Griffin

Image by Zoran

I was quite chuffed, this morning, to have a short article on web usability published in The Journal. Much of what I wrote is, or at least should be, common sense: essentially, the need to understand what information your customers are looking for, and to give it to them in a way that is clear and engaging. Though the examples I used in the article related to tourism websites, the same principles apply … Continue Reading

Vergo rebranding riddle continues

Graham Soult August 13, 2009 Brands, Co-operatives, Department Stores, Property 1 Comment

Tags: Clacton, Co-op, department store, Derrys, East of England Co-op, Ipswich, Lewis's, market research, Plymouth & South West Co-operative Society, rebrand, Vergo Retail

Looking towards the Co-op / Vergo / unnamed store in Carr Street, Ipswich. Photograph by Tim Marchant

Regular readers may recall my post from last month, where I queried how the former East of England Co-op department stores might be rebranded following their takeover by the … Continue Reading

Esslemont & Macintosh – the one that got away

Graham Soult July 26, 2009 Department Stores, Independent Stores, Property, Retail History 3 Comments

Tags: Aberdeen, department store, Esslemont & Macintosh, Joplings, Lewis's, Owen Owen, Robbs, Vergo Retail

Union Street frontage of former Esslemont & Macintosh store, Aberdeen

When I wrote about Vergo Retail’s recent acquisitions a few days ago, it brought to mind the photographs that I took back in February this year of the former Esslemont & Macintosh (E&M) department store in Aberdeen’s Union Street.

When Owen Owen fell … Continue Reading

John Lewis Bristol and the city’s changing retail landscape

Graham Soult July 24, 2009 Department Stores, Property, Retail History, Shopping Centres 3 Comments

Tags: Bentalls, Bristol, Broadmead, Cabot Circus, Cambridge, Cribbs Causeway, department store, Edinburgh, Fenwick, High Wycombe, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Lewis's, Primark

John Lewis Bristol. Photograph by Mattbuck4950

Perhaps it’s a reflection of my status as a retail nerd that one of the first things I usually do on Friday mornings is check out the John Lewis Partnership’s ‘Weekly Figures’.

These weekly stats are strangely compelling in that – probably uniquely for a major UK retailer – John Lewis publishes a store-by-store breakdown for its eponymous department store chain. Hence, … Continue Reading

Vergo Retail – the saviour of unloved Co-op department stores?

Graham Soult July 23, 2009 Brands, Co-operatives, Department Stores, Independent Stores, Retail History 9 Comments

Tags: Berwick-upon-Tweed, Bishop Auckland, Blyth, Chester-le-Street, Clacton, Co-op, Co-operative Group, Colchester, department store, Derrys, Dovercourt, Felixstowe, Gateshead, Great Yarmouth, Hexham, House of Fraser, Ipswich, Joplings, Lewis's, Murton's, Newcastle, Norwich, Owen Owen, Plymouth, Robbs, Sheffield, Stanway, Stowmarket, Sunderland, Tamworth, Vergo Retail, Westgate Department Stores, Witham

Co-op Department Store, Great Yarmouth, prior to Vergo Retail’s takeover. Photograph by Stephen McKay

In the last couple of weeks, one interesting news story that has been easy to miss is the takeover of the East of England Co-op’s department store business by Vergo Retail.

Vergo Retail, as you may be aware, is the Liverpool-based operation headed by David Thompson that, in 2007, rescued Lewis’s of Liverpool, Joplings of Sunderland and Robbs of Hexham from the … Continue Reading

Soult's Retail View

Newcastle’s TJ Hughes is saved – but Middlesbrough’s is to close within days

As Clas Ohlson pledges “long-term commitment” to UK, I check out the Leeds store

Lewis’s Grotto brings festive cheer to Liverpool

Beales pursues Robbs takeover, while The Range owner eyes other stores

Robbs and Joplings owner Vergo Retail in administration

Vergo Retail develops online presence

Retailers needs a web presence that informs and inspires

Vergo rebranding riddle continues

Esslemont & Macintosh – the one that got away

John Lewis Bristol and the city’s changing retail landscape

Vergo Retail – the saviour of unloved Co-op department stores?

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