Scottish Drapery Corporation was a

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the Security (finance), securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own Share ...

for a group of Scottish

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

s and

draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

History

In 1926 the Scottish Drapery Corporation was created to take over the share capital of several Scottish businesses. They were Pettigrew & Stephens a department store in Glasgow;

Patrick Thomson Patrick Thomson was a department store located at the southern end of North Bridge in Edinburgh. In 1952, its parent company the Scottish Drapery Corporation was purchased by House of Fraser. History Patrick Thomson opened a small haberdashery ...

Ltd a department store in Edinburgh; D M Brown Ltd a drapers in Dundee and Watt & Grant Ltd a drapers in Aberdeen. The idea was to increase the buying power and financial resources of the businesses, and were run by John Campbell, who had worked his way up through Pettigrew & Stephens. The business continued to grow by purchasing a raft of businesses between 1928 and 1950. These were: *1928 – J & R Allan Ltd a silk mercers and drapers in Edinburgh *1929 – John Falconer & Co Ltd a drapers in Aberdeen *1934 – Daly & Sons a department store in Glasgow *1936 – J D Blair & Sons Ltd a drapers in Edinburgh *1938 – Cochranes Stores Ltd a ladies outfitters in Edinburgh (was incorporated into J D Blair & Sons) *1946 – J & S Shannon Ltd a yacht outfitters in

Greenock Greenock (; ; , ) is a town in Inverclyde, Scotland, located in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. The town is the administrative centre of Inverclyde Council. It is a former burgh within the historic county of Renfrewshire, and forms ...

*1949 – Reid & Pearson Ltd a drapers in Aberdeen *1950 – A & R Milne a drapers in Aberdeen In 1952,

House of Fraser House of Fraser (rebranding to Frasers) is a British department store chain with 23 locations across the United Kingdom and 2 in Ireland, part of Frasers Group. It was established in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1849 as Arthur and Fraser. By 1891, it ...

purchased the Scottish Drapery Corporation (which two-thirds of the shares were then held by

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

, through its subsidiary the

Drapery Trust Drapery Trust (initially called the Drapery & General Investment Trust Ltd) formed in 1925 by Clarence Hatry, a notorious British financier. He had made his fortune in speculating on oil stocks, and had convinced investors to promote departmen ...

) merging the individually run businesses into the House of Fraser group. To fund the purchase of the corporation, House of Fraser sold all bar the two department stores property to Legal & General and leased them back at favourable rates. After the House of Fraser takeover, D M Brown continued to trade under this name until 1972 when it became Arnotts. This closed in 2002 and Reid & Pearson closed in 1960s. J & R Allen was converted into an Arnots during the 1970s but subsequently closed.

References

{{Reflist 1926 establishments in Scotland Holding companies established in 1926 Defunct department stores of the United Kingdom Holding companies of the United Kingdom House of Fraser Retail companies of Scotland Holding companies disestablished in 1952 1952 disestablishments in Scotland British companies disestablished in 1952 1952 mergers and acquisitions