British Home Stores or Bhs (formerly BHS and BhS) is a stalwart department store of the British High Street, selling clothing and household items such as bedlinen, cutlery, crockery and lighting. Bhs competes on quality and value, aiming at a less affluent demographic than Marks and Spencer or John Lewis. Currently the company has 186 stores throughout the United Kingdom. The Company has been a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but is now owned by Sir Philip Green.

History

The first British Home Stores shop opened in Brixton in 1928 and copied the business model of the US-based FW Woolworth in that the price of goods was limited to a maximum of one shilling. In 1929 the maximum price was increased to five shillings which enabled the company to expand the range to include furnishings and drapery. The company became a public company (Plc) in 1931.

After the Second World War the company stopped selling based on price and started to offer goods with quality and value for money.

The company expanded in the 1980s including a joint venture with retailer Sainsbury's to create hypermarkets using the SavaCentre brand.

A downturn in business in the early 1980s was fought with a revamp of the stores and the selling of goods with higher profit margins. The company closed its only overseas store, in Dublin, Ireland, during this time. In 1985 the first overseas franchise store opened in Gibraltar. Such stores, not directly owned by the Bhs company itself, now operate over Europe and the Middle East. In 1986, Bhs merged with Habitat and Mothercare to form Storehouse plc and soon afterwards, the British Home Stores registered company name and branding across its shops was replaced with 'BhS' (now Bhs) and a new corporate logo. The exception was in stores that displayed a 'historic' fascia, such as Edinburgh's Princes Street, which continued to feature the British Home Stores name in its original Roman type etched into the granite shop front.

In the mid-1990s the brand saw a further re-invention under guidance from retail design house '20:20'. The new look was showcased with the launch of the 'millennium concept' shopfit initially at the Grafton Centre, Cambridge (now simply called the Grafton) during 1995. With its softer Bhs 'signature' logo and warm interior lighting the concept attempted with varying degrees of success to meet the needs of the modern, more sophisticated (female) shopper. During the late 1990s the stores which formed Storehouse Plc fell on hard times, Bhs and Mothercare being the worst affected. Following a number of years tough trading Sir Philip Green bought Bhs from Storehouse Plc in May 2000 for £200 million. He then changed the company from public (Plc) to private (Ltd). In 2002 Green then went on to acquire the Arcadia Group of high street retailers; which includes Topshop, Burton, Evans, Dorothy Perkins and Wallis among others, to form Britain's second largest clothes retailer, after Marks and Spencer. Alan Smith, chairman of Storehouse at the time of the Bhs sale commented "He [Philip Green] had a crystal-clear vision and strategy. He had the guts to do the deal, to make it work when nobody else thought he could."

In May 2005, Philip Green, purchased Etam UK from its French owner, Etam Development. The Etam UK brands included "Etam", "Amelie May", and "Tammy". The girls' fashion retailer Tammy was the strongest brand in terms of sales and consumer recognition. For this reason, and to help improve girls' perception of Bhs as a whole, from early September 2005 stand-alone stores were closed and the brand integrated into Bhs stores.

In 2005, Bhs resurrected its 'British Home Stores' fascia more than 20 years after it had disappeared from the UK high street. The move followed the purchase of several former Allders at Home sites from the defunct department store chain. Except for the Broughton Park site in Chester, these projects were designed purely to build upon the success of the homewares & lighting that Bhs stores currently offered and to tap into new areas of business such as furniture, curtains, rugs, and wall art. Brands sold included Denby, Maxwell Williams, Typhoon, Brabantia, Terence Conran and Jasper Conran.

Chichester was the first of the Allders sites to be refurbished, and by 2006 the success of the 'Homestores' rollout was extended to the larger high street stores. By October 2008 the success of the Homestore format had rolled out to 23 dedicated Homestores, the most recent additions being Nottingham and Stoke on Trent.

On 27 February 2009, Bhs announced that the company would integrate with sister company Arcadia. Central support functions will merge and selected Bhs stores will now house selected Arcadia brands. From May 2009 Mike Goring was appointed Managing Director to the chain.

Home Shopping

The company launched its home shopping Web site on Wednesday 28 March 2007, with the aim of making all of its products available online. This was achieved in the October.

Around the same time, some stores evaluated a new layout, with departments changing size. Larger homewares departments started to stock new products that were developed for British Home Stores. Bhs has several niche departments, such as for weddings and for schoolwear. Each store caters its school uniform offering to the most popular colour combinations used by local schools.

During the first week of October each year the full Christmas shop is rolled out nationwide. In most cases this replaces a section of women's fashions until just after Christmas. During this period the Christmas shop offers a wide range of novelty, gift, decoration and food items to consumers in addition to the usual Bhs offering.

Temporary staff are taken on from late September right up until December. Some are retained after in permanent vacancies. Each year a new Christmas soft toy is launched, usually a bear. Some collect these each year, and have done so for over a decade. Christmas 2005 brought about Parker the Bear and Christmas 2006 had Bertie Bear and Toby Terrier. In 2007 Baxter Bear and Dexter Dog made an appearance. 2008 brought Benji Bear and Dylan Dog.

By 5 October 2008 all Bhs stores had launched their Christmas Shop offer and in the flagship store in Oxford Street the event was marked by the launch of the first Christmas window display on Oxford Street.

Bhs Goldcard and Bhs Everyone Card

The Goldcard was the Bhs combined payment and discount card, administered by GE Capital Bank. The card also functioned as a loyalty discount card. The Bhs was accepted in all Bhs (including Tammy) and Arcadia Group stores. Bhs Everyone card was available in some regions from September 2006 in some regions.

In March 2008, the company decided to withdraw these cards. They were replaced with a temporary discount card, the 'Thank-you Card', which has now also been terminated, but was valid until 31 July 2008. The cards were replaced on 23 July 2008 by the BHS Credit Card, and the older cards cancelled on at the end of 2008. Customers must open a BHS Credit Card if they wish to receive the 20% discount on Cardholder Days and promotional vouchers.

The BHS credit card was launched on 23 July 2008. The card is run by Barclaycard alongside Mastercard.