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Wickes
Wickes Group plc is a British home improvement retailer. It is the second largest home improvement retailer in the United Kingdom, behind B&Q. Whilst open to the general public, its sales of supplies and materials are predominantly orientated towards tradespeople. It is a specialist of kitchen and bathroom installations, with display showrooms at its locations. In April 2021, it was spun-off from Travis Perkins, and then re-listed on the London Stock Exchange. History In 1972, the United States–based Wickes Companies, whose operations included a chain of lumberyards, teamed with British builders merchant ''Sankeys'' to open the first Wickes store in the United Kingdom. By 1987, Wickes was trading from 41 locations, and was floated on the London Stock Exchange under the leadership of CEO, Henry Sweetbaum. Serious accounting irregularities, involving the overstatement of profits, were uncovered in June 1996. In November 1996, Bill Grimsey was appointed CEO, to oversee it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wickes Companies
Wickes Companies was a diversified manufacturing and retail conglomerate. It renamed itself after its subsidiary Collins & Aikman in 1992. The company ceased operations in 2007. History Brothers Henry Dunn Wickes and Edward Noyes Wickes moved to Flint, Michigan, from New York in 1854, becoming involved in the area's lumber industry. The brothers, along with partner H.W. Wood, later established Genesee Iron Works, a foundry and machine shop; after buying out Wood, the business was renamed Wickes Bros. Iron Works and moved to Saginaw, Michigan, to be closer to a source of pig iron. The company manufactured gang saws and refurbished and resold other sawmill equipment. A separate business was established to manufacture boilers. After discovering a large deposit of graphite on a visit to Mexico, the brothers established the United States Graphite Company. The three companies were merged in 1947 to form the Wickes Corp. In 1952, Wickes opened a retail lumber store in Bay City, Michi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wickes Furniture
Wickes Furniture was a privately held chain of furniture stores based in Wheeling, Illinois. The company was founded in 1971 with a showroom in Fridley, Minnesota, and at its peak, operated 43 stores in California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Texas and Oregon. The company, despite its expansion into other markets, declared bankruptcy in 2008, and eventually went into liquidation for failure to find a buyer or an investor. At the time of its closing, it was owned by Sun Capital Partners. History After its founding in 1971, Wickes Furniture had grown to 43 showrooms and five distribution centers. The company had over 1,700 employees, making it one of the ''Top 25 Furniture Retailers'' in the United States. By the beginning of the 1980s, it had grown into the United States' largest furniture retailer, but it closed nine of its then twenty four stores in 1982 in the wake of the bankruptcy of its corporate parent, Wickes Companies. After Wickes Companies was p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bricorama
Bricorama is a home improvement retailer which is based in Noisy-le-Grand, France. The company’s first store was opened in 1975. Today it employs over four thousand people. It is a member of the CAC Small 90. All mainland European operations of Wickes were sold to Bricorama in June 1997. This was because in December 1996, after financial irregularities were uncovered, management of Wickes believed that the only way to survive the troubles was to concentrate solely on its operations in the United Kingdom other than outside the country. References External links Corporate homepage(fr) Profile on Google FinanceProfile on Yahoo Finance {{Authority control Retail companies of France Retail companies established in 1975 French companies established in 1975 Hardware stores ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Travis Perkins
Travis Perkins plc is a British builders' merchant and home improvement retailer with head offices based in Northampton. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Through its Toolstation subsidiary, the group also has operations in mainland Europe. History The company began in 1797, when the Benjamin Ingram company of joiners and carpenters was founded at Beech Street in London. Benjamin Ingram subsequently merged with Perkins to become Ingram Perkins in 1850. Ingram Perkins then merged with Sandell Smythe & Drayson in 1970 to form Sandell Perkins. Sandell Perkins was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1986, shortly before it merged with Travis & Arnold in 1988, to form Travis Perkins. (Travis & Arnold had been founded by Ernest Travis in 1899. Originally operating in London, the company moved to Northampton in 1904, with the Midlands becoming its core market.) Subsequent acquisitions have included AAH (46 branches) in Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focus DIY
Focus was a British do-it-yourself and home improvement retailer, founded in 1987. The retailer grew by acquiring rival retailers such as Payless, Do It All and Great Mills; by its peak in 2002, it was the second-largest home improvement retailer in the United Kingdom with 178 stores and over 3,000 employees, behind B&Q. However, Focus would be overtaken by rivals Homebase and Wickes in the mid-2000s. The company began running losses every year from 2007. In the year up to 2011, the company had a loss of £25 million.Ernst & Young. Administrators' Statement of Proposal. 24 June 2011 Focus entered administration on 5 May 2011, with Ernst & Young appointed as administrators. The administrators sold 55 stores to B&Q, Wickes and B&M to be rebranded. The remaining 123 stores were all closed by 22 July 2011. The defunct Focus brand is owned by AHK Designs Ltd, who also own the defunct Land of Leather and MFI brands. History The company had its origins in the beginni ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Grimsey
William Grimsey (born 21 January 1952 in Kensington, London) is an English businessman who has specialised in the food and DIY sectors, most notably at Wickes, Iceland, and Focus (DIY). Early career Grimsey left school at 15 to become a butcher's boy. Under pressure from his father he then trained as a civil engineer for two years before returning to college to take his A-levels, and joining Bishop's Food Stores as a trainee manager, rising to become a director. The chain was eventually bought by Booker. When Bishop's merged with Budgens in 1986, Grimsey joined Tesco to work for Lord MacLaurin. In 1988, Grimsey left to run Hutchison Whampoa's Park n' Shop supermarket chain in Hong Kong, where he remained five years, increasing profits twentyfold. He then returned to the United Kingdom for a short spell at Kingfisher plc. Wickes He then ran Wickes' joint venture in South Africa, returning to England again in July 1996 to take up the position of managing director of WBS, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hereford
Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With a population of 61,900 in 2024, it is the largest settlement in Herefordshire. An early town charter from 1189, granted by Richard I of England, describes it as "Hereford in Wales". Hereford has been recognised as a city since time immemorial, with the status being reconfirmed in October 2000. Hereford has been a civil parish since 2000. Products from Hereford include cider, beer, leather goods, nickel alloys, poultry, chemicals and sausage rolls, as well as the Hereford breed of cattle. Toponymy The Herefordshire edition of Cambridge County Geographies states "a Welsh derivation of Hereford is more probable than a Saxon one", but the name "Hereford" is also said to come from the Anglo-Saxon "''here''", an army or formation of s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dumfries
Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, historic county of Dumfriesshire. Before becoming King of Scots, Robert the Bruce killed his rival John Comyn III of Badenoch at Greyfriars Kirk in the town in 1306. The Young Pretender had his headquarters here towards the end of 1745. In World War II, the Norwegian armed forces in exile in Britain largely consisted of a brigade in Dumfries. Dumfries is nicknamed ''Queen of the South''. This is also the name of the town's Queen of the South F.C., football club. People from Dumfries are known colloquially in Scots language as ''Doonhamers''. Toponymy There are a number of theories on the etymology of the name, with an ultimately Common Celtic, Celtic derivation (either from Common Brittonic, Brythonic, Old Irish, Gaelic or a mixture of b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plumstead
Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich. History Plumstead has been settled since ancient times, and London's earliest timber structure has been found here. During the excavation of a peat bog near Belmarsh Prison in 2009, an ancient timber trackway, radiocarbon dated to be nearly 6,000 years old, was discovered by archaeologists. In 960 King Edgar I of England, Edgar gave four plough lands, collectively called Plumstead, to a monastery - St Augustine's Abbey near Canterbury, Kent. These were subsequently taken from the monastery by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, Earl Godwin for his fourth son, Tostig Godwinson, Tostig. King Edward the Confessor restored them again to the monastery on taking power, however Tostig saw the opportunity to take possession of them once again after Edward's death in 1066 when Harold Godwinson, King Harold seized his brother's estates. After the Battle of Hastings in 106 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulwell
Bulwell is a market town and former civil parish in the Nottingham district, in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire, England. It is south-west of Hucknall and to the north-west of Nottingham. The United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded the population of Bulwell at 29,771 which amounted to over 10 per cent of Nottingham city's population. The 2011 census gave a population of 16,157 for the Bulwell ward of Nottingham City Council. There is an adjacent ward, Bulwell Forest, which includes Highbury Vale, Rise Park and the west of Top Valley, its population at the same census being 13,614. History Early settlers The earliest documented settlements in Bulwell appeared around 800 AD, and were most likely built around the same time as the first local bridge across the River Leen. The river was significantly narrower, shallower and slower-moving in Bulwell than in other potential locations along its length, and the threat of highwaymen was a danger on existing cross-country routes; ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Penrith, Cumbria
Penrith (, ) is a market town and civil parish in the Westmorland and Furness district of Cumbria, England. It is less than outside the Lake District, Lake District National Park and about south of Carlisle. It is between the Rivers River Petteril, Petteril and River Eamont, Eamont and just north of the River Lowther. It is part of Historic counties of England, historic Cumberland. Toponymy The etymology of "Penrith" has been debated. Several writers argue for the Cumbric or Welsh language, Welsh "head, chief, end" (both noun and adjective) with the Cumbric , Welsh "ford", to mean "chief ford", "hill ford", "ford end", or Whaley's suggestion: "the head of the ford" or "headland by the ford". The centre of Penrith, however, lies about from the nearest crossing of the River Eamont at Eamont Bridge. An alternative has been suggested consisting of the same element meaning "head, end, top" + the equivalent of Welsh "crimson". Research on the medieval spelling variants of Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
