Lakeland is a chain of British kitchenware stores in the United Kingdom. It is still based where it was founded in

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in length, and almost 1 mile (1.5 km) at its wides ...

in the Lake District, the area the company is named after.

History

Lakeland at Brent Cross Shopping Centre 15 March 2022

Alan Rayner, an agricultural feed salesman, had the idea of providing local

farmer A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer m ...

s with

polythene Polyethylene or polythene (abbreviated PE; IUPAC name polyethene or poly(methylene)) is the most commonly produced plastic. It is a polymer, primarily used for packaging ( plastic bags, plastic films, geomembranes and containers including bo ...

bags for packing

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, ...

. He set up a mail order business with his wife Dorothy, supplying agricultural plastics and home-freezing products from the garage of their Windermere home in the Lake District. The company became Lakeland Plastics and sold a range of farming accessories and freezer bags. In 1974, Alan retired and his three sons Martin, Sam and Julian took over. The range of products grew to include wooden, glass, ceramic and stainless steel

kitchenware :'' For a record label, see Kitchenware Records'' Kitchenware are the tools, utensils, appliances, dishes, and cookware used in food preparation, or the serving of food. Kitchenware can also be used in order to hold or store food before or af ...

, as well as a range of specialty foods while the agricultural product range was reduced. In 1997, Lakeland Plastics changed its name to Lakeland Limited to reflect its changing product lines. In 2007, the ''Limited'' tag was dropped, although it remains part of the company's legal name. This change was part of a wider rebranding by the company to create a more contemporary look in its retail outlets.

Current business

The Lakeland Head Office is now based in Windermere at Alexandra Buildings with its distribution centre on the Shap Road industrial estate in Kendal. Lakeland has around 4,000 products in its range and produces around 18

catalogues Catalog or catalogue may refer to: *Cataloging **'emmy on the 'og **in science and technology *** Library catalog, a catalog of books and other media ****Union catalog, a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of librarie ...

each year which are posted to its customers or picked up in store. They reflect the company's main target for customers; home kitchenware, solutions for the home, garden accessories and seasonal. Lakeland's

retail outlets 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 ...

have also expanded. There are now 68 Lakeland stores including its flagship store next to its Windermere head office.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Lakeland's homepage
Retail companies of the United Kingdom Companies based in Cumbria Retail companies established in 1956