…instore

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...instore

Type	Retail
Founded	2003
Headquarters	Huddersfield, England, UK
Employees	5,000
Website	http://www.instoreretail.co.uk/

Headquarters and distribution centre in Huddersfield

...instore is a chain of retail stores in the United Kingdom operated by instore plc. The stores sell a wide range of products although mainly offer value homeware products across their 140 stores within the UK. The current slogan is "Shop Smart, Live Well" and the marketing is often seen alongside with Poundstretcher stores as part of the rebranding of Poundstretcher by instore plc.

[edit] Instore plc

Instore plc is the parent company of ...instore and Poundstretcher. It was renamed from Brown & Jackson plc in July 2005. The Store Support Centre and Distribution Centre of the company are located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. Ironically, the company does not have a store in the town, the nearest is 5 miles (8.0 km) away at Ravensthorpe Shopping Park, Dewsbury, a site which is shared with retailers such as Netto, Subway and Home Bargains. The company has over 5,000 employees.^[1] and there are 304 stores including poundstretcher branded sites^[2], located in the United Kingdom. The first opened in September 2003.

In September 2002 the company concluded a major rebranding of its stores, with the trading subsidiaries What Everyone Wants, Your More Stores and the Famous Brunswick Shoe Warehouse disposed of. About half of the Poundstretcher stores were rebranded as ...instore. In 2006, a new Chief Executive concluded that the rebranding was not working and from 2007, new stores were opened as Poundstretcher stores. The company continues to operate both brands with no intention at present to reverse the branding of the majority of ...Instore branded stores. In January 2008, the company acquired 31 Ponden Mill stores under license from the administrators of the company, along with some rights to the Coloroll brand.

During December 2006, the company issued a warning that its profits for the year would be likely to be well below expectations. This was blamed on difficulties experienced at the Huddersfield distribution centre following the introduction of a new software system and poor trading conditions.^[3] The company later reported that it was making progress in overcoming the problems it had experienced and that sales growth for the six week period ending 13 January 2007 was 4.6%.^[4]

In May 2007, Seaham Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Crown Crest plc, bought 29.84% of the shares and at the same time Peter Burdon, former Chief Executive of Thorntons, was installed as Chief Executive.^[5]