Rumbelows was an electrical and electronics

retail 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 ...

er in the

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that once rivalled

Currys Currys (branded as Currys PC World between 2010 and 2021) is an electrical retailer and aftercare service provider operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland, specialising in white goods, consumer electronics, computers and mobile phones. E ...

, Dixons and

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History

The company was established by Fred Dawes as a chain of television and radio rental shops in the 1950s, and named after him. The stores became more general electrical retailers. The chain was later acquired by

Thorn Electrical Industries Thorn Electrical Industries Limited was a British electrical engineering company. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange, but merged with EMI Group to form Thorn EMI in 1979. It was de-merged in 1996 and became a constituent of the FTSE 100 In ...

. In 1971, Thorn also acquired the Sidney Rumbelows chain, and Fred Dawes stores were subsequently renamed Rumbelows. Several other regional chains were bought around this time, including two chains in

North West England North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...

, NEMS and Strothers. As with Fred Dawes, these stores were renamed Rumbelows. Centralised control was established from the Nantwich, Cheshire, headquarters. Several of the former Strothers and NEMS stores also sold records, musical instruments and hifi equipment. The Rumbelows store in Whitechapel,

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

had previously been the NEMS music store in the 1960s, when it was run by

Brian Epstein Brian Samuel Epstein (; 19 September 1934 – 27 August 1967) was a British music entrepreneur who managed the Beatles from 1962 until his death in 1967. Epstein was born into a family of successful retailers in Liverpool, who put him i ...

, manager of the

Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developme ...

Demise

In 1989, the business was sold to

Radio Rentals Radio Rentals was formed in 1930Radio Rentals Staff Handbook in Brighton, Sussex, UK to rent out radio sets by Percy Perring-Thoms with a turnover in the first year of £780 (). It later offered televisions and ultimately video recorders for re ...

, (which had merged with Thorn Electrical Industries the previous year, and all the rental accounts were transferred to Radio Rentals.

Thorn EMI Thorn(s) or The Thorn(s) may refer to: Botany * Thorns, spines, and prickles, sharp structures on plants * ''Crataegus monogyna'', or common hawthorn, a plant species Comics and literature * Rose and Thorn, the two personalities of two DC Comic ...

(as Thorn Electrical Industries had become) transferred all of Rumbelows’ rental accounts to their

chain, bolstering its market position. With its core business removed, Rumbelows sought a new identity as a more conventional (non-rental) retailer, even adding computers to the product mix. In 1992, Thorn converted some of the remaining Rumbelows shops into DER, Multibroadcast or Radio Rentals branches. Some stores were also converted to the Fona brand, franchised from a Danish electrical retailer and marketed as "The electrical store from Denmark", with adverts starring

Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (; born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress, model and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in '' The Double Man'' (1967), ''The Night They Raided ...

. By the 1990s, the business was making losses and Thorn closed the remaining 285 Rumbelows shops and 36 Fona stores in 1995. Rumbelows had been losing £12 million yearly, and had never made a profit in its 24 years of existence. Some stores were sold to Escom, a

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PC retail chain, but itself folded in 1998. In the 1980s, Martin Dawes (born c. 1945) would carry on the family name in the electrical and electronic retailing sector, with his

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...

business, which he then sold to

Cellnet O₂ UK (legally incorporated as Telefonica UK Limited, stylized as O₂) is a British telecommunications services provider, headquartered in Slough, England. It operates under the O2 brand. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ventu ...

in March 1999 for £130 million.

Football sponsorship

From 1990 to 1992, Rumbelows were the title sponsor of the

English Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

, an

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professional competition.

References

{{reflist Consumer electronics retailers of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1969 Retail companies disestablished in 1995 Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom British companies disestablished in 1995