Beales (department store)

Beales was an English department store chain, which operated 23 branches. The flagship store, Beales in Bournemouth, was established as The Fancy Fair by John Elmes Beale in 1881 and is the biggest department store in Dorset. The chain expanded through acquiring other department stores and continued to run two stores branded as Palmers in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft until its closure.

Beale Limited
Limited company
IndustryRetail
GenreDepartment store
FateIn Administration & Closure
Founded1881 (1881); 139 years ago in Bournemouth, Hampshire, UK
FounderJohn Elmes Beale
Defunct18 March 2020 (2020-03-18)
HeadquartersBournemouth, United Kingdom
Number of locations
23
Area served
UK
Key people
Tony Brown CEO
OwnerTony Brown
Number of employees
1000
SubsidiariesJ E Beale plc
Websitewww.beales.co.uk
Footnotes / references
now closed

The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until its private equity takeover. Beales entered administration on 20 January 2020 and finally closed their remaining stores on 18 March 2020.[1]

History

Beales was established in 1881 by John Elmes Beale when he opened a store, initially known as a Fancy Fair and Oriental House, on Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth, Dorset.[2] The company was run by the Beale family during the 20th century; Bennett Beale took over from his father, then by his John's grandson Frank.[2] Frank Beale trained at Macy's in New York City before returning to lead the company.[2] In the 1980s Nigel Beale, grandson of the company's founder, led the company.[2]

Beales claims to be the first department store in the world to feature a live Father Christmas character, dating back to 1885.[3] During the Second World War the company's Bournemouth store was bombed on 23 May 1943.[2]

The company floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1995.[4] Whitakers, the Bolton department store opened in 1829 was bought by Beales in 1996, with the name changed to Beales in 2011.[5]

Early 21st century expansion

The group acquired the Bentalls department stores in Ealing (closed October 2007), Tonbridge and Worthing from Fenwick in 2002 and closed its Walton-on-Thames store in January 2006.

A new Beales store opened in Horsham in September 2006 in premises formerly occupied by Allders.

On 4 June 2010, Beales acquired the Robbs department store in Hexham from Vergo Retail which was in administration, for £250,000.[6]

In August 2010, Beales expanded further by acquiring the Westgate Department Store in Rochdale from the Anglia Regional Co-operative Society.[7]

As of 5 April 2011, Beales acquired 19 additional Westgate stores, securing its long-term future.[8]

In May 2012, Beales announced it would be opening an outlet store in the former T.J. Hughes store in The Mall Maidstone. This store closed in June 2013.[9] In addition a branch in Skipton closed in November 2012, a branch in Cinderford closed in July 2013.[10]

In summer 2014, the large Harrogate store closed for re-development of the land by the landlord.

In June 2016, a planning application submitted by AEW UK for 76 flats in Bournemouth's Beales store was unanimously rejected[11][12] after a campaign by locals and the owners of Beales backed by Conor Burns MP.[13] The 65 studio and 11 one bedroom flats with no parking which were described by AEW UK as "an environmentally sustainable approach" which "made the best use of the building"[14] were rejected by councillors as "shabby" and "appalling".[12]

On 28 November 2018, Beales bought Palmers.[15]

Tony Brown took the company into private ownership in 2018.[4] Beales was a member of Associated Independent Stores (a buying group) which enables Beales to benefit from the cost savings of buying textiles and other non-food goods in bulk.

2020 closure

On 12 January 2020, Beales warned that the company with 23 stores in the UK could collapse into administration, if a buyer for the business could not be found.[16]

On 20 January 2020, Beales formally entered administration, appointing KPMG as the administrators.[1] It is currently understood that there will be no immediate store closures and Beales stores will continue to trade as normal in the short term.[1] On the same date, the beales.co.uk customer-facing website also went offline. At the time of entering administration, Beales had 23 stores and employed in excess of 1,000 people whose jobs are at risk.[1]

On 7 February 2020, it was announced that Beales was closing 12 stores, due to failure to sell the chain as a whole. This includes Beales’ flagship store and many other significant locations.[17] On 18 February it was announced that, although negotiations with a number of parties were continuing, the remaining 11 stores would close within the following 8 weeks selling their remaining stock.[18]

The COVID-19 pandemic hastened the closure of the remaining Beales stores, with the last stores closing on 18 March and the website going offline shortly after.[19]

Locations
Beales in Harrogate in 2013. This branch closed in 2014 and was demolished in 2015.
gollark: We could use bundled redstone for outofband signalling.
gollark: Except the bits don't line up, lovely.
gollark: We could cut the first 6 chars off for control codes. Either "packet and sequence number" or "establish connection" or "please resend".
gollark: An issue, though, is that if we want to use base 64 then we'll lose several bytes if the first two chars of each label are used thag way.
gollark: We would need a way of dealing with timing desyncs though, maybe a sequence number.

See also

References
  1. "Department store Beales falls into administration". BBC News. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  2. "About Us". Beales. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  3. "PICTURES: When the Beales Christmas parades brought Bournemouth to a standstill". Bournemouth Echo. Bournemouth Echo. 18 December 2016. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  4. "Beales Collapses Into Administration With 1,000 Jobs At Risk". www.lse.co.uk. 20 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  5. Thompson, Stephen (8 March 2016). "Bolton Town Centre Department Store Beales in Deansgate could be forced to close because of High Rents". Bolton Evening News. Retrieved 27 May 2016.
  6. Amy Shields (4 June 2010). "Beales acquires Robbs of Hexham". Retail Week.
  7. "Beales acquires Rochdale department store". HousewaresLive.Net. 9 August 2010. Archived from the original on 23 July 2011.
  8. Amy Shields; Nicola Harrison (5 April 2011). "Beales to acquire 19 department stores". Drapers.
  9. "Beales department store to close in Maidstone". Kent Online. Retrieved 25 March 2014.
  10. "Beale weather woes". Stock Market Wire. 4 July 2013. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  11. "Council unanimously rejects "shabby" and "appalling" Beales flats plans". The Herald Scotland. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  12. "Council unanimously rejects "shabby" and "appalling" Beales flats plans". Lancashire Telegraph. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  13. "Beales Department Store Planning Application". Conor Burns MP. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  14. Farrell, Stephen (22 March 2016). "FLATS PLANNED FOR LANDMARK DEPARTMENT STORE". Insider Media Ltd. Retrieved 9 February 2017.
  15. Coates, Liz. "Takeover deal for Palmers in Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft to complete at midnight". Great Yarmouth Mercury. Retrieved 28 November 2018.
  16. "Department store Beales warns of collapse risk". 12 January 2020. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  17. "Beales to close more than half of its stores". BBC News. 7 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  18. "Final Beales department stores set to close". BBC News. 18 February 2020. Retrieved 18 February 2020.
  19. "Beales stores are all closing for good today". Bournemouth Echo. 18 March 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020.
  20. Priestley, Catherine (6 October 2016). "Bishop Auckland's biggest high street shop Beales is to shut". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  21. Slade, Darren (19 February 2015). "134 years of Beales: a look at the department store's long history". Bournemouth Daily Echo. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  22. Grassby, Jade (14 July 2019). "The Avenue shopping centre in Bournemouth is being developed". Bournemouth Daily Echo. Retrieved 18 December 2019.
  23. Mckellar, Hope (8 November 2019). "Beales department store has officially opened in Fareham Shopping Centre". Portsmouth News. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
  24. "Beales kicks off stores drive with new format". Retail Week. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
  25. Bale, David (26 April 2016). "Beales' store closing in King's Lynn". Eastern Daily Press. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  26. "Beales department store set to close 1st August". www.rochdaletowncentre.co.uk.
  27. Steward, Michael (4 November 2016). "Beales in Saffron Walden closing earlier than expected". Saffron Walden Reporter. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
  28. Napier, Andrew (26 April 2016). "Beales to close store in Winchester". Hampshire Chronicle. Retrieved 20 January 2020.
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