Beatties of London (commonly known as Beatties) was a

model A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

retail company of the United Kingdom, not to be confused with the

Beatties Beatties was a small British department store group located primarily in the Midlands of England. In 2005, when it had 12 stores, the group was acquired by House of Fraser. On 14 January 2006, the Birmingham store closed, because a similar Ho ...

department store group.

History

Beatties was founded by Colonel S N Beattie and Charles Whale as the Southgate Model Shop. In the early 1960s they had two small shops on Winchmore Hill Road in London. Looking away from the tube station the one on the right sold new model railway equipment and the one on the left was full of used stuff. He later bought out the Bassett Lowke shops after Whale left the company. On Beatties' retirement the business was bought by Richard Kohnstamm Ltd (best known as Riko and also the Tamiya importers) who then expanded it into a major chain. At some point the focus on model railways was dropped and Beatties became more like a general toy store. Beatties bought the Toy and Model retailers Taylor & McKenna in 1987 , they had 10 shops, the first one opened in Hemel Hempstead in 1960 , and the second shop was opened in Aylesbury in Friars Square The retail company Era Group plc owned Beatties by the end of its days as a retailer. By the late 1990s Beatties had 60 stores, in locations including the MetroCentre, Gateshead, and the

Merry Hill Shopping Centre Merry Hill (formerly Westfield Merry Hill and The Merry Hill Shopping Centre) is a large shopping complex in Brierley Hill near Dudley, England. It was developed between 1985 and 1990, with several subsequent expansion and renovation projects ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

. The company had an e-commerce website. The chain ran into financial trouble after an attempt to break into the already well-served video games market, where they struggled against well-established competitors. On 14 March 2001 the company was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal ** Administrative assistant, Administrative Assistant, traditionally known as a Secretary, or also known as an admini ...

by its parent company ERA Group. Alan Bloom and Chris Hill, partners at Ernst & Young, were appointed as joint administrative receivers by Barclays Bank, at the request of Era. The shares of Era Group, which Beatties made up the largest part of, were suspended from the AIM list on 27 February 2001. In October 1999 some stores began to close. In July 2000 34 of the 60 stores were closed, and Era Group attempted to raise £5m through a share issue to help pay creditors. In March 2001, 13 of the remaining stores were sold to turnaround specialists

Hilco Hilco Global is an American financial services holding company. It operates over twenty businesses and specializes in asset valuation, advisory, monetization, and disposition services. Headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois, it has offices th ...

, and the final 13 stores were closed, at the cost of more than 100 jobs. Modelzone acquired many of the former Beatties stores and also suffered a similar fate closing down in 2013. A museum-quality collection of heritage transport toys called "The Beatties Collection" was auctioned by Phillips with a reserve price of around £50,000.

References

{{Reflist British companies established in 1938 1938 establishments in England History of the London Borough of Enfield Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies based in London Companies based in the London Borough of Enfield Retail companies disestablished in 2001 Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom 2001 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 2001