Allders
Allders
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legal form | Limited (corporation) |
founding | 1862 |
Seat | Croydon , UK |
Branch | retail trade |
Website |
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Allders was the third largest department store in Great Britain, based in Croydon , Great Britain , founded by Joshua Allder in 1862. Until the first bankruptcy in 2005, Allders operated a full-range department store chain with 50 branches.
history
The department store in Croydon, which existed until September 2012, was the founding branch, and later the flagship store (main store ). The Allders department store group, which had grown over many years through its own expansion and acquisitions of other department stores, operated 50 department stores throughout Great Britain, the majority of them as classic department stores in the shopping streets of the inner cities, but also several branches in shopping centers in the outskirts.
Allders was the fourth largest of the British department store chains. The Allders department store group went bankrupt in 2005 and was subsequently dissolved and sold piece by piece.
In the course of the bankruptcy proceedings, 35 of the Allders department stores were taken over and continued to operate by competing companies such as Debenhams , Primark , British Home Stores (BHS) and House of Fraser . The remaining houses that could not find a buyer began clearance sales in February 2005 and were closed until May of the same year, including the large branch on London's Oxford Street , which was later also acquired by Primark. By May 2005, with the exception of Croydon, all Allders properties had been closed or taken over, with the Leeds branch being the last to close.
The main house in Croydon was acquired by Harold Tillman, owner of the Jaeger clothing stores, and continued to operate under the Allders name until it closed on September 22, 2012. In terms of sales area (46,000 m²), it was the third largest department store in Great Britain (after Harrods and Selfridges ), and for years had the largest carpet department in Europe. As of June 15, 2012, the company operated under bankruptcy protection under British bankruptcy proceedings. As a result, there was a total evacuation sale. The bankruptcy trustees were unable to find a new investor for the historic but outdated department store and it was closed on September 22, 2012, with the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs.
Locations of former Allders department stores
- Aylesford (now BHS)
- Basildon (now Debenhams)
- Basingstoke (now Debenhams)
- Bolton (closed)
- Bromley , 162 High Street (now Primark)
- Bromley , 44 High Street
- Camberley (closed)
- Cardiff (closed)
- Chatham (now Debenhams)
- Chelmsford (closed)
- Chester (now BHS)
- Chichester (now BHS)
- Chineham (closed)
- Clapham (now Debenhams)
- Coventry (now Primark)
- Crawley
- Croydon (the former main store and until September 2012 the only remaining Allders, now Croydon Outlet Village)
- Eltham (closed)
- Guilford (now Primark)
- Handforth (now BHS)
- Horsham (closed, Beales department store since 2006)
- Ilford (now Debenhams)
- Ipswich (closed)
- Kingston upon Hull (now Primark)
- Kingston upon Thames , 2 Clarence Street (closed)
- Kingston upon Thames , 76 Eden Street (now Primark)
- Kirkstall (now BHS)
- Knaresborough (now BHS)
- Lakeside (closed)
- Leeds (closed)
- Leicester (now Primark)
- Lincoln (now BHS)
- London , Oxford Street (closed, later bought by Primark)
- Northampton (now BHS)
- Nottingham (closed)
- Oxford (now Primark)
- Portsmouth (now Debenhams)
- Reading (closed)
- Redditch
- Romford (closed)
- Rotherham
- Sheffield (closed)
- Slough (now Debenhams)
- Southampton
- Sutton (now Debenhams)
- Sutton Coldfield (closed)
- Watford
- Woking (now Debenhams)
- York , Clifton Moor (closed)
- York , Coppergate (now BHS)