Kaleidoscope (retailer)
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Kaleidoscope (retailer)
Kaleidoscope is a catalogue and online based retailer specialising in women’s fashion and accessories, but also stocking homewear and electricals. Kaleidoscope is owned by Freemans Grattan Holdings (previously named Otto UK), which is in turn owned by Otto GmbH – one of the largest retailers in the world with over 50,000 employees at 123 companies across more than 20 countries. Freemans Grattan Holdings largely operates in the UK through brands including Freemans, Grattan, Kaleidoscope, Oli, Look Again, Bon Prix and Witt. The company also owns Hermes (Previously named Parcelnet) – A European home delivery courier company History Kaleidoscope was originally a division of W H Smith, and traded as its Book Club merchandise catalogue. This division was better known as BCA (Book Club Associates). In 1982 Grattan purchased both the Kaleidoscope name and the mailing list. The operation was operated from a location in Leicester with both computer and distribution resources being ...
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Otto GmbH
Otto GmbH & Co KG (doing business as Otto Group, stylized as otto group, formerly Otto Versand) is a German mail order company and one of the world's biggest e-commerce companies. Based in Hamburg, it operates in more than twenty countries. Otto is primarily a retail e-commerce company, and as a shareholder, it also operates in e-commerce services. The Otto group has expanded into real estate and financial services. In France, Otto claims to be the leading e-commerce business through 3 Suisses. In June 2013, Otto executed a full takeover to become its only shareholder. History The family of executive board chairman Michael Otto owns the majority of the company. The company is based in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded by Werner Otto in 1949. The first catalogue was hand produced offering twenty eight styles of shoes. During the 1950s, the product range business volume expanded. Otto introduced telephone orders in 1963, and launched an online shopping website in 1995. Mich ...
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W H Smith
WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Formation In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business a ...
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Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National Forest, England, National Forest. It is situated to the north-east of Birmingham and Coventry, south of Nottingham and west of Peterborough. The population size has increased by 38,800 ( 11.8%) from around 329,800 in 2011 to 368,600 in 2021 making it the most populous municipality in the East Midlands region. The associated Urban area#United Kingdom, urban area is also the 11th most populous in England and the List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 13th most populous in the United Kingdom. Leicester is at the intersection of two railway lines: the Midland Main Line and the Birmingham to London Stansted Airport line. It is also at the confluence of the M1 motorway, M1/M ...
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Bradford
Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 census; the second-largest population centre in the county after Leeds, which is to the east of the city. It shares a continuous built-up area with the towns of Shipley, Silsden, Bingley and Keighley in the district as well as with the metropolitan county's other districts. Its name is also given to Bradford Beck. It became a West Riding of Yorkshire municipal borough in 1847 and received its city charter in 1897. Since local government reform in 1974, the city is the administrative centre of a wider metropolitan district, city hall is the meeting place of Bradford City Council. The district has civil parishes and unparished areas and had a population of , making it the most populous district in England. In the century leadin ...
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Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to the north, Staffordshire to the east, Worcestershire to the southeast, and Herefordshire to the south. A unitary authority of the same name was created in 2009, taking over from the previous county council and five district councils, now governed by Shropshire Council. The borough of Telford and Wrekin has been a separate unitary authority since 1998, but remains part of the ceremonial county. The county's population and economy is centred on five towns: the county town of Shrewsbury, which is culturally and historically important and close to the centre of the county; Telford, which was founded as a new town in the east which was constructed around a number of older towns, most notably Wellington, Dawley and Madeley, which is today th ...
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Wetherby
Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogate. The town stands on the River Wharfe, and for centuries has been a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road midway between London and Edinburgh. Historically a part of the Claro Wapentake (as part of the parish of Spofforth) within the West Riding of Yorkshire, Wetherby is mentioned in the ''Domesday Book'' of 1086 as ''Wedrebi'', thought to derive from ''wether-'' or ''ram-farm'' or else meaning "settlement on the bend of a river". Wetherby Bridge, which spans the River Wharfe, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Grade II listed structure. The course of the Old Great North Road passes through the town and, as result of its situation on the road, many coaching inns were established in Wetherby which are still used by ...
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George Davies (retailer)
George William Davies (born 29 October 1941) is an English fashion designer and retailer. Davies headed Next from its creation in the 1980s, before moving on to start the fashion label ' George at Asda' in the 1990s. Leaving Asda in 2000 following their acquisition by Walmart, he launched the '' Per Una'' fashion collection at Marks & Spencer. In 2009, Davies launched his 4th brand (called GIVe) which saw 26 stores opening in selected towns and cities in the UK along with an e-commerce retailing. Dubbed as a "serial brand creator", the "King of the High Street" and "the leading fashion visionary" he was awarded the Drapers Record Life Time Achievement award in 2003 and the "Designer of the Decade" by Prima in 2004. Early life George William Davies was born in Crosby, Lancashire, on 29 October 1941 to sausage maker George Snr, and seamstress Mary Davies. Davies cites his mother as his motivation to succeed in life in fashion: His grandparents lived on a farm in Thornton, Cro ...
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Asda
Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorkshire. It expanded into Southern England during the 1970s and 1980s, and acquired Allied Carpets, 61 large Gateway Supermarkets and other businesses, such as MFI Group. It sold these acquisitions during the 1990s to concentrate on the supermarkets. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until 1999 when it was acquired by Walmart for £6.7 billion. Asda was the second-largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom between 2003 and 2014 by market share, at which point it fell into third place. Besides its core supermarkets, the company also offers assistance for insurance and payment services and a mobile phone provider. In February 2021, the Issa brothers (Mohsin and Zuber) and TDR Capital acquired Asda. Walmart retains "an equi ...
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Catalog Showrooms
A catalog merchant (catalogue merchant in British and Canadian English) is a form of retailing. The typical merchant sells a wide variety of household and personal products, with many emphasizing jewelry. Unlike a self-serve retail store, most of the items are not displayed; customers select the products from printed catalogs in the store and fill out an order form. The order is brought to the sales counter, where a clerk retrieves the items from the warehouse area to a payment and checkout station. Purpose The catalog merchant has generally lower prices than other retailers and lower overhead expenses due to the smaller size of store and lack of large showroom space. There are a few key benefits to this approach. By operating as an in-store catalog sales center, it could be exempt from the "Resale price maintenance" policy of the manufacturers, which can force conventional retailers to charge a minimum sales price to prevent price-cutting competition; it also reduces the r ...
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