Big W (UK Chain)

Big W
subsidiary of Woolworths (2001–04)
Genre Large Format Store
Fate Brand name scrapped and rebranded as Woolworths
Successor Woolworths
Founded 1998
Defunct 2004
Headquarters England, United Kingdom
Number of locations
 21
Area served
 United Kingdom
Owner Kingfisher (1998–01)
Woolworths (2001–2004)

Big W was a large format chain of megastores owned by the Kingfisher Group (later Woolworths Group PLC). This chain was composed of Kingfisher's brands, which were Comet, B&Q, Superdrug and Woolworths in one large megastore. At its peak there were 21 stores in the chain. Even though Woolworths scrapped the brand name in 2004, they continued to operate 14 of the stores and all of them but 1 remained until the administration in 2008. Dispite sharing the name with the Australian chain Big W. both are not related in any means due to them being owned by 2 different companies. Big W's tagline was A lot for not a lot.

History

in 1967, The F.W. Woolworth Company opened their first British Woolco store in Oadby, Leicestershire. The store was 63,000 sq.ft and offered many products like Groceries, Fashion and household products. Woolworth later opened 2 more stores in Thornaby, Stockton on Tees and Bournemouth, Hampshire. They were all successful and eventually Woolworth had a 12 store chain under the Woolco name. When the F.W. Woolworth Company span off the British Woolworth, the Woolco stores were later converted to regular Woolworth stores, and then the company sold them off to Supermarket chain Gateway in 1986. Gateway then sold the stores once more, this time to Asda in 1988. Some of the remaining Woolco's still remain under Asda ownership to this day.

In 1980, Woolworth acquired the DIY chain B&Q, which at its peak had 26 stores. In 1982, Both the British Woolworth and B&Q chains were split from the F.W. Woolworth Company into Woolworth Holdings PLC. The company expanded by acquiring the Comet Group in 1984 and then Superdrug in 1987. Woolworth Holdings PLC was renamed Kingfisher Group PLC in 1989, to fit in more with the Woolworths name.

in 1998, the CEO of Kingfisher Group, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy publicly revealed Big W, a chain of stores that would combine Kingfisher's 4 main brands. This chain was similar to Woolco, and featured products from Woolworths, Superdrug, Comet and B&Q in one roof. The 4 chains supplied everything for Big W except for Adult Clothing and Groceries. In the same year, Kingfisher's headhunters found someone who would run the Big W chain, The Canadian-born Bob Hetherington was chosen to Run Big W. He had experience with the American F.W. Woolworth Company as he used to run the American Woolco chain before it closed down. Hetherington wanted the Big W stores to be fun places to shop in and to offer entertainment during the weekend.

A location in Edinburgh, Scotland was chosen to be the very first Big W location. Construction started in September 1998, and the store opened in June 1999, and was a huge success for Kingfisher, the store even attracted people from 75 miles away. Eventually Kingfisher opened up stores in many more locations, such as Stockton, Bristol, Bradford, Glasgow, Birmingham, Redruth and Tamworth.

in 2000, Clothing and Food brands for Big W were created with assistance from The Big Food Group and Peacocks. Only 7 Big W stores supplied food however.

Fate

In 2000, Kingfisher Group PLC started to demerge their company after losses from the Comet and B&Q chains and the battle of the ownership of French DIY chain Castorama. In 2001, Kingfisher sold off their General Merchandise division, which included Woolworths, Big W, Music and Video Club and Superdrug so they could focus on their DIY and Electrical companies. Superdrug was later sold to Dutch company Kruidvat in the same year.

The Kingfisher demerger affected the Big W chain, because it meant the stores would be just oversized Woolworths stores and not stores with loads of products in one roof. Even with that, Woolworths Group PLC still continued to open stores monthly, but those traded as Woolworths Big W. In 2003, Woolworths started to open stores less often as the chain was losing money.

In 2004 Woolworths confirmed they would scrap the Big W concept, with that they confirmed that 7 of the 21 stores (The stores that had permission to sell food products) would be sold to Asda and Tesco. This also included a store in Grimsby that never opened due to the Big W format being scrapped. The 14 stores Woolworths kept were rebranded under their own name. Some of the stores were down-sized and some had Peacocks stores trading inside them as well.

The Tamworth store closed in April 2008 so that M&S could expand (They already owned the other half of the former Big W) and the remaining 13 stores closed in 2008 and 2009 after Woolworths ceased trading.

About

Much like Woolco, Big W stores were found on retail parks around the UK and supplied goods from the 4 main Kingfisher brands. When the stores became Woolworths Big W, they supplied only Woolworths products. These remained mainly the same when the stores became regular Woolworths Stores. Peacocks (who supplied Big W's Clothing Brand) shared half of the out-of-town stores with Woolworths. Some stores later introduced Woolworths Clearance Outlets at the back of the stores.

Stores converted to Woolworths

Stores sold to Asda or Tesco in 2004

A store in Byker was also planned, but instead opened as a 95,000 Square Foot Woolworths & Peacocks store in 2004. This store now operates as an Asda.

External Links

Official website (archived)

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