Matalan is a British fashion and homeware retailer based in

Knowsley, Merseyside Knowsley is a large village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley, Merseyside, England, commonly known as Knowsley Village. Historically part of Lancashire, at the 2001 Census it had a population of 11,343. It gave its n ...

. It was established by John Hargreaves in 1985, and is still owned by the Hargreaves family. , the company employed over 13,000, and had 230 stores 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 ...

, together with franchise stores in the Middle East.

History

John Hargreaves opened the first Matalan store in 1985 at

Bamber Bridge Bamber Bridge is an urban village in Lancashire, England, south-east of Preston, in the borough of South Ribble. The name derives from the Old English "bēam" and "brycg", which probably means "tree-trunk bridge". The population was 13,945 at ...

, near

Preston, Lancashire Preston () is a city on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. The city is the administrative centre of the county of Lancashire and the wider City of Preston local government district. Preston and its surrounding distri ...

. There were fifty stores by 1995, and in 1997, the company moved its headquarters from Preston to

Skelmersdale Skelmersdale is a town in Lancashire, England, on the River Tawd, west of Wigan, northeast of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813. The town is known locally as Skem . While the first record of the tow ...

, also in Lancashire. The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1998, but taken private again by the Hargreaves family in October 2006. During 2009, John Hargreaves sought to sell off Matalan, but by February 2010, had failed to find buyers willing to meet the £1.5 billion price. Jason Hargreaves was appointed managing director in July 2013. The headquarters moved to a purpose built site at

in 2014. The company won approval for this scheme in October 2012.

Controversy

Matalan was among the companies who sourced clothes from the

Rana Plaza The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse (also referred to as the 2013 Savar building collapse or the Collapse of Rana Plaza) was a structural failure that occurred on 24 April 2013 in the Savar Upazila of Dhaka District, Bangladesh, where an ...

factory in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

which collapsed, killing 1,134, in April 2013. In July 2014, they were the focus of a campaign by 38 Degrees and

Labour Behind the Label Labour Behind the Label (LBL) is a UK-based non-profit co-operative organisation with an office in Easton, Bristol, which campaigns for workers' rights in the clothing industry. It is the platform of the international Clean Clothes Campaign in ...

, for failing to contribute to the official compensation fund coordinated by the

ILO The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and ol ...

. This was in contrast to some of their main competitors, such as

Primark Primark Stores Limited (; trading as Penneys in the Republic of Ireland) is an Irish multinational fast fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland. It has stores across Europe and in the United States. The Penneys brand is not us ...

who contributed $9 million. After pressure, they announced that they would contribute an undisclosed amount. It was later revealed that they had paid £60,000 into the fund, which labour rights campaigns challenged as being an insufficient amount compared with other retailers.

Structure

Matalan Retail Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Missouri Topco Limited, a holding company which is based in Guernsey, and is controlled by the Hargreaves family. In the Middle East, the Matalan brand is franchised to BTC Fashion General Trading, based in Qatar. BTC have stores in Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. There is also at least one store in Georgia (at the City Mall, Tbilisi).

Management

In June 2020, Matalan confirmed that they would name a new chairman and a new chief commercial officer less than a month after John Mills stated he would step down from the board. Steve Johnson succeeded Mills as the next chairperson of the value retailer, while James Brown moved into the completely new Chief Commercial Officer position at the company.

References

External links

*
Middle East Official Website
{{Authority control British companies established in 1985 Retail companies established in 1985 Clothing retailers of the United Kingdom Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies based in Merseyside