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This article is about the British Woolworths Group plc, and its stores. For other retailers of similar name, see Woolworth Woolworths Group plc is a general merchandise business in the United Kingdom . Its main stores are '''''Woolworths''''', sometimes known informally as "Woolies". Woolworths trades predominantly in High Street locations. Smaller stores, aimed at meeting everyday shopping requirements can be found in small towns throughout the UK. Larger Woolworths stores can also be found on prime shopping streets in most major regional shopping centres and in out-of-town locations. Woolworths product ranges are aimed primarily at young mothers and children, though it is sometimes accused by the investment community of lacking a clear niche. It is a fairly . . As Of February 2007 , the most recent store opening was in Ayr in March 2006. In Summer 2006 the business launched an in-store collection service for items ordered on their website or in-store, to compliment the already established in-store ordering system. In Late September 2006, the "Big Red Book" was launched, which was designed to be a direct competitor of the Argos catalogue.[http://www.linlithgowtoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=959&ArticleID=1942237 "Store stays put"], Linlithgow Today website (linlithgowtoday.co.uk). Comments attributed to Andrew Moodie; "''These developments are enabling Woolworths to challenge market leader Argos said Mr Moodie''". Article dated 2006-12-22 , retrieved 2007-01-13 . HISTORY F W Woolworth & Co, Ltd was founded by Frank Woolworth in Liverpool, the United Kingdom in 1909 as a subsidiary of the American company F.W. Woolworth Company . Early years The first store opened in Church Street, Liverpool on 5th November 1909 with a public preview, with staff serving cups of tea and customers allowed to view goods that would go on sale the next day. Items ranged from 3d to 6d emulating the nickel and dime concept of the US stores, with many of the goods sourced from nearby suppliers. With the ability to place huge orders that could be sold in the UK as well as the US stores, most of what was on sale was much cheaper than anywhere else. The Liverpool store, one of the first to have electricity, was also the first to have a lunch counter, an idea so successful it was then re-created in the US branches and was popular for more than fifty years. Woolworths, along with the American owned London store Selfridges which opened in the same year, also introduced the concept of product being on show in the store and shoppers allowed the browse and help themselves without pressure to buy. Woolworths low-cost household goods shops gave the working class their first taste of middle class materialism and by 1950 the company had 762 branches around the country. Post-split from parent company In 1982 , the British Woolworths was acquired by Paternoster Stores Ltd, the forerunner of Kingfisher Plc . Woolworths Group plc was formed by the demerger of Kingfisher's general merchandise business, and began trading as a listed company on the London Stock Exchange on August 28 , 2001 . During the 1980s, management rationalised merchandise lines into clearly defined categories: entertainment, home, kids (toys and clothing) and confectionery. In the late 1990s, the management extended the Woolworths brand into other retail formats and alternative channels to accelerate growth by taking advantage of changing retail trends. Some larger format stores were opened under the Big W brand, similar to Wal-Mart in the US. Although initially successful, the format ultimately failed to catch on; the original plan had relied upon leveraging the involvement of other Kingfisher group retailers, but following the demerger this was no longer possible. In 2004 , Woolworths sold off some Big W store sites to other retailers, including ASDA and Tesco . The gross internal floor area of the remaining sites was reduced to an optimum trading size of around 40,000 to 50,000 square feet. Following this, they were rebranded as Woolworths Out of Town stores. Woolworths had previously tried the large out of town store or Hypermarket format in the 1980s with the Woolco Stores which were later sold or closed down. Recent history In 2000, the Woolworths General Store format was launched. This format was developed to become an American " Drugstore " style store, with a pharmacy and longer opening hours. This failed to develop any additional benefits and the format was quietly dropped. Other formats the company has recently trialled are the 10/10 format, 5/5 format, Phoenix format and Kids Plus. The 10/10 format completely re-styles stores between 14 and 25,000 sq ft with new fixtures and full store repairs (stores with a red walkway are 10/10), the 5/5 format re-styles stores between 4 and 6,500 sq ft and uses larger stores' stockrooms for additional support and the Phoenix format uses spare fixtures from the 5/5 and 10/10 refurbishment to make stores more presentable that cannot afford or support a 5/5 or 10/10 refurbishment. The Kids Plus format was trialled at the Burton store, and has now been trialled at Northampton and Bedford . This strips out non-children's departments such as kitchenware and home and expands on toys and children's clothing. In September 2006 Woolworths reported that like for like sales fell 8.3% in the six months to 29 July 2006. Losses widened to £64.9m from £20.2m a year ago. {Link without Title} MUSIC BUSINESS Woolworths, for many years, was a leader in the UK music industry. In the 1950s and well into the 1960s , Woolworths issued recordings available only via their stores on their own label Embassy Records, produced and manufactured by Oriole Records (UK) . These releases were double sided singles featuring two cover versions of current hit singles sold at a much cheaper price. This venture was very successful at the time, but was eventually killed off when other record companies started to issue compilation albums. However, Woolworths remained in the music business selling a wide range of singles and albums, and remained the UK's Number 1 music retailer well into the 1990s . Even the success of nationwide music specialists stores such as Virgin Megastore and HMV couldn't compete with Woolworths during this time. In recent years however, they have suffered from strong competition in this field from the large supermarket chains Tesco and Asda . SUBSIDIARIES & JOINT VENTURES E.UK was founded as Record Merchandisers Limited in 1966, and subsequently became a joint venture between a number of record companies. Woolworths became E.UK's largest customer and in 1986 E.UK was acquired by the Kingfisher Group . E.UK now supplies many major retailers and signed a new partnership with Virgin Megastores in 2007.1 Other notable customers include parent company Woolworths, Morrisons , Sainsbury's , ASDA , WH Smith , and formerly Tesco . Streets Online was founded in 1996 and has attracted over 450,000 registered customers since its launch. Woolworths Group now owns 91.4 per cent. of Streets Online. (although the Streets Online website has been 'down' for a number of months and seems to be no longer trading) 2 entertain Limited is a joint-venture company combining the former video and music publishing and TV/video production businesses of the Woolworths Group subsidiary, VCI plc, with the video publishing business of BBC Worldwide . BRANDS Chad Valley Chad Valley launched in 1991 in response to research that identified a gap in the market for a range of high quality, safe toys that offered good value for money. It was decided to utilise the Chad Valley brand name, which had been in existence since 1860, to create an own label range of merchandise. Chad Valley comprises an extensive range of toys and games suitable for all children from babies and toddlers to boys and girls under 8 years old. Ladybird Ladybird is a brand of childrenswear for children aged 0-9 years. Following the acquisition of the brand, it is now sold exclusively at Woolworths. Ladybird is ranked third overall in the childrenswear market, with an increasing market share of 5%. There are thousands of lines in the Ladybird range, which is priced competitively from £1.99 - £29.99. Woolworths purchased rights to the exclusive Ladybird brand in 1984, purchasing it outright from Coats Viyella in 2001. The brand has an extensive history which dates back to the trading partnership between the original firm Adolf Pasold & Son and Woolworths. This partnership began in 1934 when the Pasolds family bought the Ladybird brand from Kinger Manufacturing Co in 1938 before being bought by the aforementioned Coats Viyella. WOOLWORTHS IN MANCHESTER CITY CENTRE Presently the nearest branch of Woolworths to Manchester city centre is the former Big W outlet located next to the Manchester Fort retail park. Unlike most major cities in the United Kingdom, there has not been a major Woolworths store in the city centre for over 25 years. The lack of a Woolworths presence in Manchester city centre is attributed to an extensive fire which occurred on 8 May 1979 at a store located near to Piccadilly Gardens (where the Piccadilly 21 Nightclub is presently located) killed 10 shoppers. An inquiry showed that precautions to prevent the fire were inadequate and that the store had lacked measures (such as an effective sprinkler system) to stop the spread of the fire from the furniture department. The devastation to the Manchester store and the loss of life resulted in the Fire Research Station conducting a number of tests to develop sprinkler systems that could handle a large department store fire like that of the Woolworths Manchester. The fire also generated modifications to the Fire Precautions Act and indirectly made furniture manufacturers develop new fabrics and materials to make sofas from. However, although Woolworths do not have a major store in Manchester since the fire, the firm did have several small outlets during the 1990s which sold Music and Confectionery ( Sweets , Pick 'n' Mix , Chocolate etc). Despite trials of such formats of outlets at the Sheffield Meadowhall Shopping Centre (which closed in 2003), they did not survive for long, with the Manchester Music and Video store being superseded by a larger MVC store, owned by Woolworths Group. REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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