27 Facts About Arcadia Group

Arcadia Group Ltd was a British multinational retailing company headquartered in London, England.

Arcadia Group has its origins in the firm founded by 18-year-old Lithuanian immigrant Montague Burton in Chesterfield in 1903 as The Cross-Tailoring Company.

In 1971 the Arcadia Group acquired Evans, a major operator in the field of fashionable clothing for women wearing larger-sized clothes.

Dorothy Perkins chain was acquired in 1979, enabling the Arcadia Group to expand into the mainstream womenswear market, following the success of its previous ladieswear ventures.

In 1984, the Arcadia Group launched a new chain, Principles, for fashion conscious women with a higher disposable income; this allowed the firm to capitalise on emerging new fashion and business trends of the 1980s, such as power dressing.

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Also in 1985, the Arcadia Group acquired Debenhams, then the largest department store group in the UK.

In 1993, spurred on by the recession of the early 1990s which had led to declining sales across the clothing retail market, the Burton Arcadia Group undertook a major review of its trading space portfolio.

At the time of the review, the Arcadia Group was operating in the region of 1,600 stores, some of which had been with the group for some years and some of which were no longer performing adequately.

The ultimate result was that the Arcadia Group ended the leases on around 380 of the outlets they were trading from at that point, though replaced over half of these with the lease of store units which the Arcadia Group had not previously been trading from.

In 1996, the Arcadia Group made its first move into home shopping with the acquisition of Innovations, a mail order catalogue company, along with the Hawkshead brand in July 1996 and Racing Green in October 1996.

Decision to de-merge Debenhams and separate it from the rest of the Arcadia Group was announced in July 1997: the plan was approved by shareholders in January 1998 and the de-merger took effect later that month.

In June 1998, the Arcadia Group acquired Wade-Smith, the Liverpool-based retailer of designer childrenswear, menswear and womenswear.

The acquisition was primarily to allow Arcadia Group to expand its presence in the childrenswear market, which they had made little attempt at up to this point.

In June 1999, the Arcadia Group launched Zoom, an e-commerce and Internet Service Provider that forms a key part of the Group's multi-channel approach to retailing.

In July 1999, Arcadia Group increased its share of the UK womenswear market with the acquisition of the Sears womenswear businesses, comprising the Warehouse, Wallis, Richards, Miss Selfridge and Outfit brands from the defunct Sears plc.

Shortly afterwards, Arcadia Group chose to close down the underperforming Richards chain, though shops in suitable locations were rebranded under other Arcadia Group store brands.

Arcadia Group continued to develop the Wallis, Miss Selfridge and Warehouse brands, and expanded significantly the Outfit out-of-town store chain, introducing other Arcadia Group brands to the stores and expanding the store network.

In 2002, Arcadia Group plc was bought by Taveta Investments, owned by Taveta Ltd, based in Jersey.

Accordingly, Arcadia Group became a private company and was delisted from the London Stock Exchange.

Arcadia Group entered into discussions regarding the sale of the Wade Smith brand back to its previous owners.

Some stores not retained by Arcadia were taken up by other fashion retail groups, with Monsoon acquiring a large number of the outlets.

In late 2010, Arcadia began a further review of its property portfolio, similar to those undertaken under the Townprint and BrandMAX schemes; several hundred of the group's existing store leases were set to expire over the next three to five years.

Arcadia Group cited the rise in online shopping and "destination" centres as a reason for moving away from high street locations.

In May 2019, Arcadia Group confirmed it planned to close multiple stores across the UK, US and Ireland with the possibility of further closures worldwide.

Arcadia Group went into administration at 8pm GMT on 30 November 2020, placing 13,000 jobs at risk.

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Arcadia Group's brands, including Dorothy Perkins, were mainly supplied by International Clothing Designs, a company owned by Philip Green's long-time friend Richard Caring, owner of the Annabel's nightclub.

All of Arcadia Group's brands were sold during January and February 2021 to online retailers, meaning that the related stores will eventually close.