Storehouse plc, traded as Storehouse, was a large UK retail business formed by

Terence Conran Sir Terence Orby Conran (4 October 1931 – 12 September 2020) was an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer. He founded the Design Museum in Shad Thames, London in 1989 The British designer Thomas Heatherwick said that Conran ...

through the merger of various high street chains. It was listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index before it was renamed

Mothercare Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to eight years of age. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap In ...

in 2000.

History

The company was formed in 1986 by the merger of Habitat Mothercare PLC with

British Home Stores British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electro ...

PLC. The shareholders of BHS held 55% of the resulting company with Habitat Mothercare the remaining 45%. The resulting chain comprised British Home Stores (including their 50% stake in SavaCentre),

Habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

, Conran's, Conran Design Group, Conran Studios, Mothercare (including Habitat Mothercare's 20% stake in

Fnac Fnac () is a large French retail chain selling culture, cultural and consumer electronics, electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its head office is in ''Le Flavia'' in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. It is an abbreviati ...

and 50% stake in Conran Octopus Publishing),

Richard Shops Richard Shops was a British high street retailer of women's fashion. History The business was created in 1936 by John Sofio, who modelled the business on the US company Learner Brothers. The company was bankrupt by 1941 and was purchased by ...

, NOW,

Heal's Heal's ("Heal and Son Ltd") is a British furniture retail company comprising seven stores, selling a range of furniture, lighting and home accessories. For over two centuries, it has been known for promoting modern design and employing t ...

, and The Conran Shop. 1987 saw the group start to expand with the establishment of the Anonymous retail chain, the launch of the firm's in-house credit card ; Storecard (in association with Citibank). Speculation in the City that Storehouse was worth less as a whole than the sum of its parts began to circulate during 1987 which culminated in an offer by the property company

Mountleigh Mountleigh was a property development and dealing company formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies t ...

in September 1987 which valued the company at £1.8 billion, this was dismissed and quickly followed a bid from a small engineering firm valued at £45 million; Benlox Holdings plc, which was used as a vehicle by financier Peter Earl, valuing Storehouse at £2.007 billion. This too was rejected. In 1988 Storehouse appointed a new chief executive; Michael Julien (former Managing Director (Finance and Administration) of

Guinness plc St. James's Gate Brewery is a brewery founded in 1759 in Dublin, Ireland, by Arthur Guinness. The company is now a part of Diageo, a company formed from the merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan in 1997. The main product of the brewery is ...

), to replace

who remained as chairman until 1990, and the group was reorganised into three divisions, British Home Stores, 'Speciality Retailing' comprising the group's brands Mothercare, Richard Shops, Blazer, Anonymous and Jacadi and 'Home Furnishing' comprising Habitat, Heals, and The Conran Shop. Julien retired on health grounds in 1992 and was replaced by David Dworkin the Chief Executive of British Home Stores. In 1992 Habitat was purchased from Storehouse by

IKANO Ikano Group is a privately held international group of companies with the parent company Ikano S.A. based in Luxembourg. It was originally a part of IKEA, which was founded by Ingvar Kamprad, then became independent in 1988, and has since been owne ...

and Richard Shops was sold to the British retailing giant

Sears plc Sears plc was a large British-based conglomerate. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was acquired by Philip Green in 1999. History The business was founded by John and Willi ...

. The Company bought Children's World from

Boots A boot is a type of footwear. Boot or Boots may also refer to: Businesses * Boot Inn, Chester, Cheshire, England * Boots (company), a high-street pharmacy chain and manufacturer of pharmaceuticals in the United Kingdom * The Boot, Cromer St ...

in 1996,UK Business Park: Storehouse
and rebranded all of their superstores Mothercare World stores. In 2000, following several years of tough trading for all companies within the group, British Home Stores was sold to

Philip Green Sir Philip Nigel Ross Green (born 15 March 1952) is a British businessman who was the chairman of the retail company the Arcadia Group. He owned the high street clothing retailers Topshop, Topman and Miss Selfridge from 2002 to 2020. As of Ma ...

for £200m cash.BHS sold to M&S raider
/ref> Storehouse then changed its name to Mothercare plc.

References

External links

Bhs HomeMothercare HomeMothercare Plc Investor HomeHabitat Home

{{Authority control Companies based in the City of London Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies established in 1986 Retail companies disestablished in 2000 1986 establishments in England