Big W (United Kingdom)

Big W (later named Woolworths Big W) was a British variety store chain operated by the Woolworths Group. It was created in 1998 by the Kingfisher Group as a store format that would combine the best of their then-owned chains; Comet, B&Q, Superdrug and Woolworths, under one roof. Big W stores were found in Retail parks in contrast to the High Street format standard Woolworths stores were located within.

While initially successful, the split-up of the Kingfisher Group into a DIY-focused business led to trouble for the chain when it was included in the 2001 split of the General Merchandise division, resulting in low sales and poor financial results. Three years later, Woolworths announced that the Big W format would be scrapped in favour of smaller out-of-town stores branded under its own name, with some being sold to supermarket chains Asda and Tesco.

Before the formation of Big W, Woolworths had already experimented in the out-of-town market under its former parent, the F. W. Woolworth Company. F.W. Woolworth operated a chain of out-of-town department stores in the United States named Woolco; and in 1967 had expanded the chain to the United Kingdom with the opening of a store in Oadby, Leicestershire in 1967. The store was 63,000 square feet (5,900 m²) and offered many products like groceries, fashion and household products under one roof; being the first out-of-town store of its type in the country.^[1] By the 1970s, the company operated twelve stores under the brand.

When the F.W. Woolworth Company spun off the British Woolworth chain into Woolworth Holdings PLC in 1983, Woolco UK was also included in the sale. By 1986, the company had exited the out-of-town business and sold all Woolco stores to Gateway, which then sold the stores to Asda in 1988.

In 1980, The F.W. Woolworth Company purchased the Southampton-based DIY chain B&Q, which at its peak had 26 stores. In 1983, Woolworth's operations in the United Kingdom underwent a management buyout from their former parent company, initially as Paternoster Stores, before becoming Woolworth Holdings PLC.^[2] Under the new owners, the company went on to purchase electrical retailer Comet in 1984 and beauty retailer Superdrug in 1987. With the large number of brands outside the general merchandise market, the company renamed itself to Kingfisher Group PLC in 1989.

As Kingfisher continued to expand, the company achieved a £100 million profit in 1997 and utilized most of the funds to refurbish existing Woolworths stores under three different subcategories: "City" stores, "Heartland" stores, and "Local" stores, which had proven to be very successful.^[3] The rest of the profit was used as part of a planned merger with supermarket chain Asda, which if the merger went through the two businesses would be to create an out-of-town megastore chain that would bring the best of Kingfisher and Asda in one roof. However, at the last minute, Walmart took over Asda.^[4]

After the failed merger, the CEO of Kingfisher Group, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy, decided to go on his own in the out-of-town retail market and publicly revealed the large-format Big W chain in June 1998. Following the announcement, Headhunters at Kingfisher appointed Canadian-born Bob Hetherington to run the chain. Hetherington, who had prior experience as the chairman of the US version of Woolco, stated that the chain would be a "fun place to shop" and introduced the concept of "Retailment".^[5] The idea of "Retailment" was used to differentiate Big W from other retailers by providing in-store events that centred on a way where colleagues and families would have fun together, with an explicit focus on families. Events that would occur in stores included charity fundraisers, fancy dress parties, celebrity visits, music artist signings, and character greetings.^[6]

Shortly after the announcement was made, a site in Edinburgh, Scotland, was chosen to be the first Big W location. Construction started in September 1998, and the large 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) store opened in June 1999. The store was a huge success for Kingfisher, attracting 30,000 shoppers in its first three days. In addition to the already announced features, the Edinburgh store also contained a Burger King fast food outlet and a Peacocks clothing concession.^[7] Prior to the opening, Kingfisher announced on 30 April that they would purchase 10 stores from the Co-Op Homeworld retail chain, with most of the purchased stores being converted into Big Ws.^[8] In August, Kingfisher announced that the 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m²) Co-Op Homeworld store in Coventry would reopen as a Big W store in October, becoming the second store to open and the first in England. Most of the former Co-Op Homeworld staff were hired to run the store, and its location in a busy area provided easy service.^[9] Following the opening, the former Rotherham and Bristol Co-Op Homeworlds would become the next stores to be converted for a March opening window, while nine more would open over the upcoming months.^[10]

In July 2000, the Coventry store trialed a packaged food range through a deal with the Booker Group, and in September, signed a three-year deal with Peacocks to sell their clothes in all Big W stores. On 12 October 2000, Kingfisher announced plans to extend Big W's grocery lineup by 2001, while beginning their first television advertising campaign for the chain, titled "Moving Home".^[11] At the same time, the next four stores in the chain, located in Stockton, Redruth, Bradford and Glasgow, would open between October and November.^[12] By December, Big W had become the first retail chain in the United Kingdom to break the £1 million barrier for a single week's sales for its Edinburgh and Coventry branches.^[13]

In September 2000, Kingfisher Group PLC announced that it would demerge, retaining the DIY and Electronics operations and splitting the general merchandise division, consisting of Woolworths, Superdrug, Big W, Woolworths General Store, MVC, Video Collection International, and Entertainment UK into a separately-traded company.^[14] Following the announcement, plans were made by the General Merchandise division to open 700 new stores, including 90 Big W stores, over the next few years after the split.^[15] By the summer of 2001, both Superdrug and the rest of the general merchandise division had restructured, with the former being sold to Dutch company Kruidvat as a public limited company^[16] while the latter became a publically-traded company under the name of the Woolworths Group on 28 August.^[17][18]

With the loss of its major suppliers, the Big W chain was renamed to Woolworths Big W. New stores continued to open periodically, but as the years went on, it had proven that Big W was becoming very unprofitable for the company.

On 25 March 2004, Woolworths officially announced that the Big W format would be scrapped at a £41m loss for the company. Woolworths' chief executive, Trevor Bish-Jones, stated that the stores were "too big" for the company to operate^[19] and confirmed that most of the twenty-one sites would be downsized and rebranded under a new "Destination" format utilising the Woolworths name, that would focus more on standard out-of-town fare such as toys and party supplies as well as items that wouldn't be able to be sold in the regular high street stores. It was also unknown how this would affect the chain's supply deal with Peacocks.^[20][21] Eventually, it was announced that the seven stores in the chain that had planning permission to sell groceries would not be part of the restructuring and would be sold off.

On 9 January 2005, Woolworths sold the seven stores that sold groceries to Tesco and Asda,^[22] which also included a Big W store in Grimsby that never opened. The first two stores to gain the cut-down "Kids and Celebrations" strategy were the Norwich and Tamworth branches, with the other Big W stores following suit throughout 2005.^[23] Most of the new Woolworths stores had their gross internal floor area of the remaining sites reduced to an optimum trading size of around 40,000 to 50,000 square feet (3,700 to 4,600 m²). While others, which kept their original store size, shared space with Peacocks or other concessions.^[20] An intended Big W site in Byker was the first to initially open as a Woolworths in 2004, while a newly-opened store in Hartcliffe, which opened in April 2005, was the first out-of-town Woolworths location to not originally open as a Big W.

Woolworths continued to periodically open out-of-town locations up until the company's collapse into administration in December 2008, after which all remaining stores were shuttered.

• Official website (archived)