...instore was a chain of

retail store Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

s in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, selling a range of products and principally concentrating on value homeware items. The company was headquartered in

Huddersfield Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

but did not have a store in the town: the nearest was away at Ravensthorpe Shopping Park, Dewsbury. The company had over 5,000 employees.

Instore plc's corporate history

Instore - Crown Point Retail Park - geograph

Instore plc, formerly Brown & Jackson plc, was the parent company of "...instore", operating 340 stores across the United Kingdom, also including Poundstretcher and Ponden Mill branded sites. The ...instore name was created as part of a major rebranding of the existing, value led

Poundstretcher Poundstretcher (previously styled as £-stretcher and also previously known as ...instore) is a chain of discount stores operating in the United Kingdom. It is based in Kirby Muxloe, England. History Poundstretcher was established in 1981 b ...

business that had been trading since 1981. In September 2002, the company concluded a programme of rebranding half its Poundstretcher stores as "...instore" in an attempt to reposition the business as a more mid market retailer. Trading subsidiaries

What Everyone Wants What or WHAT may refer to: * What, an interrogative pronoun and adverb * "What?", one of the Five Ws used in journalism Film and television * ''What!'' (film) or ''The Whip and the Body'', a 1963 Italian film directed by Mario Bava * '' What ...

, Your More Stores and the Famous Brunswick Shoe Warehouse were also disposed of at this time. In 2004 Brown & Jackson sold its Polish retail business, which operated since 1999, to South African

Pepkor Pepkor is a South African-based investment and holding company with business interests in Africa, Australia and Eastern Europe. It manages a portfolio of retail chains focused on the value market selling predominantly clothing, footwear and text ...

. In July 2005 the company adopted the name of Instore plc, replacing the previous Brown & Jackson plc name. In 2006, a new chief executive concluded that the re branding was not working and from 2007, new stores were opened as Poundstretcher stores. In January 2008, the company acquired 33 ''Ponden Mill'' stores under license from the administrators of the company, along with some rights to the Coloroll brand. The company continued to operate both ...instore and

brands, but as of 2009, has reverted its core estate to the Poundstretcher brand.

Poundstretcher

Established in 1981 by Paul Appell and Stephen Fearnley,

had grown to a business consisting of 338 stores by 2004. Roughly half of the stores were converted to the ...instore format by the end of 2002, and the Poundstretcher business began to marketed jointly with ...instore outlets, sharing the same offers and slogan. By 2009, the company had deemed the rebranding exercise a failure, and ...instore shops were expected to revert to the Poundstretcher fascia. A new Poundstretcher ''Extra'' format was developed for larger stores. After selling Poundstretcher, Mr. Appell and Mr. Fearnley became involved in a failing retail business, ''United News Shops'', which they managed to revitalise. Growing to become the largest convenience store and

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

business servicing

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...

s, ''United News Shops'' was sold to

WH 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 m ...

in March 2008.

Profit warnings

During December 2006, the company issued a warning that its profits for the year would be likely to be well below expectations. This was blamed on difficulties experienced at the Huddersfield distribution centre following the introduction of a new

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

system and poor trading conditions. The company later reported that it was making progress in overcoming the problems it had experienced, and that sales growth for the six week period ending 13 January 2007 was 4.6%. In May 2007, Peter Burdon, former chief executive of

Thorntons Thorntons Limited is a British chocolate manufacturer owned by the Italian confectionery company, Ferrero. It was established in 1911 by Joseph William Thornton and his father in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. When Cadbury became part of the M ...

, was installed as chief executive. In July 2008, the company rejected a £11.4 million cash offer for the business, arguing that the chain is being undervalued. The bid was made by ''Seaham Investments'', who already control 30.6% of the company. In January 2009, a trading notice issued following the Christmas trading period was of a disappointment to the company, in which they said sales were not as expected. Later in the month, the final year periods profits were announced at a £4 to 5 million pound loss.

References

External links

...instore, now Poundstretcher website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Instore Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 2003 Retail companies disestablished in 2009 Companies based in Huddersfield Companies based in Kirklees Companies based in Glasgow 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom 2009 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Discount shops of the United Kingdom Companies established in 2003