Matalan

Quality 0.50 · 1 view · Updated 2 months ago

British fashion and homeware retailer

title: "Matalan" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["british-companies-established-in-1985", "retail-companies-established-in-1985", "clothing-retailers-of-the-united-kingdom", "companies-formerly-listed-on-the-london-stock-exchange", "companies-based-in-knowsley", "companies-that-have-filed-for-chapter-15-bankruptcy"] description: "British fashion and homeware retailer" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matalan" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary British fashion and homeware retailer ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameMatalan Retail Ltd
logoMatalan logo.svg
area_served
former_name{{Ubl
Matalan (Salford) Limited (19871988)<ref name"CompaniesHouse"
Matalan (Cash & Carry) Limited (19881992)<ref name"CompaniesHouse" /
Matalan Discount Club (Cash & Carry) Ltd. (19921998)<ref name"CompaniesHouse" /
typePrivately held company
foundation() in Preston, Lancashire
locationKnowsley, Merseyside
key_people{{Ubl
industryRetail
products{{Ubl
revenue£2.9 billion GBP (2024)
ownerJohn Hargreaves & family
homepage{{Ubl
::

| name = Matalan Retail Ltd | logo = Matalan logo.svg | area_served = | former_name = {{Ubl | Matalan (Salford) Limited (19871988) | Matalan (Cash & Carry) Limited (19881992) | Matalan Discount Club (Cash & Carry) Ltd. (19921998) | type = Privately held company | foundation = () in Preston, Lancashire | location = Knowsley, Merseyside | key_people = {{Ubl | Karl-Heinz Holland (Chairman) | industry = Retail | products = {{Ubl | Clothing | Homewares | revenue = £2.9 billion GBP (2024) | owner = John Hargreaves & family | homepage = {{Ubl | (UK) | (Middle East) Matalan Retail Ltd is a British clothing and homewares retailer based in Knowsley, Merseyside, founded by John Hargreaves in 1985.

In August 1988, its operations director at the time, Duncan Sullivan, transformed Matalan into an out-of-town warehouse-style, membership-only cash-and-carry business, inspired by Sam's Club in the United States. The membership-only model was phased out by March 1998. Matalan's turnover grew from £26m in 1992 to £800m in 1998, with over seven million customers and a £1bn valuation on the London Stock Exchange.

As of June 2024, the retailer has 230 locations domestically, as well as a number of franchise outlets in the Middle East. The retailer is a wholly owned subsidiary of Missouri Topco Limited, a holding company which is based in Guernsey, and is controlled by the Hargreaves family.

History

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e5/Matalan_Kingston_Park.jpg" caption="A Matalan shop at [[Kingston Park]], Newcastle upon Tyne (2007)"] ::

In 1985, John Hargreaves opened the first Matalan store at Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire. There were fifty stores by 1995, and in 1997, the company moved its headquarters from Preston to Skelmersdale, also in Lancashire.

During 2009, John Hargreaves sought to sell off Matalan, but by February 2010, had failed to find buyers willing to meet the £1.5 billion price. Jason Hargreaves was appointed managing director in July 2013. The headquarters moved to a purpose built site at Knowsley, Merseyside in 2014.

In September 2018, it began a partnership with toy retailer The Entertainer, who opened 59 in-store concessions as 'Totally Toys'.

In June 2020, Matalan confirmed that they would name a new chairman and a new chief commercial officer less than a month after John Mills stated he would step down from the board. Steve Johnson succeeded Mills as the next chairperson of the value retailer, while James Brown moved into the completely new Chief Commercial Officer position at the company. In July 2020, Matalan filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in the United States.

In March 2023, it was announced that former Co-op Food CEO, Jo Whitfield, would be joining Matalan as chief executive. Whitfield served in various executive roles at Matalan between 2002 and 2008.

In October 2024, after only 18 months, Jo Whitfield left the position of CEO to pursue a her own portfolio career.

Middle East operations

In the Middle East, the Matalan brand is franchised to BTC Fashion General Trading, based in Qatar. BTC have stores in Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. There is also at least one store in Georgia (at the City Mall, Tbilisi).

2013 Rana Plaza collapse

Matalan was among the companies that sourced clothes from the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh which collapsed, killing 1,134 in April 2013. In July 2014, they were the focus of a campaign by 38 Degrees and Labour Behind the Label, for failing to contribute to the official compensation fund coordinated by the ILO. This was in contrast to some of their main competitors, such as Primark who contributed $9 million.

After pressure, they announced that they would contribute an undisclosed amount. It was later revealed that they had paid £60,000 into the fund, which labour rights campaigns challenged as being an insufficient amount compared with other retailers.

References

References

  1. (1987-02-25). "Matalan Retail Ltd. overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
  2. (February 2019). "Matalan Retail Limited – Annual Report 2019".
  3. Insider, Business. (2007-07-25). "INBUSINESS: Retail Guru's Adventures in Property".
  4. Heeds, Chantelle. (2019-09-08). "From stall to international company: The story behind Matalan".
  5. "Report and Accounts for Year Ended 23 February 2019 (Missouri Topco Limited)".
  6. (11 October 2006). "Matalan PLC: RNS announcement".
  7. (11 February 2010). "Matalan founder John Hargreaves to trouser £250m in refinancing deal". www.theguardian.com.
  8. Holland, Tiffany. (15 July 2013). "Profile: Matalan's new managing director Jason Hargreaves".
  9. (2018-10-04). "The Entertainer boasts 38% rise in profits - Retail Gazette".
  10. (25 June 2020). "Matalan announces new chair and chief commercial officer".
  11. Green, Rick. (July 30, 2020). "Matalan Finance Seeks U.S. Chapter 15 Bankruptcy Protection (1)".
  12. Banham, Mark. (2023-03-27). "Matalan appoints new CEO and chairman".
  13. Wright, Georgia. (2024-10-07). "Matalan CEO exits after just 18 months - Retail Gazette".
  14. "Matalan".
  15. "Matalan stores".
  16. "Pressure intensifies on Matalan to give to Rana Plaza fund". [[The Times]].
  17. (28 July 2014). "'If Primark can pay over factory collapse, why can't Matalan?' - Telegraph". Telegraph.co.uk.
  18. "Primark Ethical Trading - Our Work in Bangladesh". Primark Ethical Trading.
  19. Julia Kollewe. (30 July 2014). "Matalan donates to Rana Plaza victims' trust fund one day before deadline". The Guardian.
  20. "Press Release: Matalan slammed for "trivial" compensation payments to Rana Plaza victims".
  21. (8 August 2014). "38 Degrees - Blog - Matalan: Only £60,000".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

british-companies-established-in-1985retail-companies-established-in-1985clothing-retailers-of-the-united-kingdomcompanies-formerly-listed-on-the-london-stock-exchangecompanies-based-in-knowsleycompanies-that-have-filed-for-chapter-15-bankruptcy