Rumbelows

Rumbelows was an electrical and electronics retailer in the United Kingdom that once rivalled Currys, Dixons and Comet.

Rumbelows
TypePrivate
IndustryElectrical Retailing
Founded1969
FounderFred Dawes
DefunctFebruary 1995

History

The company was established by Fred Dawes as a chain of television and radio rental shops in the 1950s. The business was initially named Fred Dawes at thime. All ninety of the Fred Dawes stores on the high street became electrical retailers instead and in 1971, Thorn acquired an Essex and Hertfordshire group of shops called Sidney Rumbelow’s, and Fred Dawes stores were renamed Rumbelows subsequently.

Several other regional chains were bought around this time, including two chains that were already large and popular in North West England, NEMS and Strothers. As with Fred Dawes, these stores too were renamed Rumbelows. Combining previously unrelated chains occasionally created competing Rumbelows stores within yards of each other.

Centralised control was established from the Nantwich, Cheshire, headquarters, which suffered as much as it benefited from being an early adopter of computerised accounting. Several of the former Strothers and NEMS stores also sold records, musical instruments and hifi equipment. The Rumbelows store in Whitechapel, Liverpool had been the heart of the NEMS Enterprises empire during the 1960s, when NEMS was owned by the manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein.

Demise

The business was first sold to Radio Rentals in 1989 (which had merged with Thorn Electrical Industries in 1968), and all the rental accounts were transferred to Radio Rentals. Thorn EMI (as Thorn Electrical Industries had become) transferred all of Rumbelows’ rental accounts to their Radio Rentals chain, bolstering its market position. With its core business removed, Rumbelows sought a new identity as a more conventional (non rental) retailer, even adding computers to the product mix.

Thorn converted some of the remaining Rumbelows shops in 1992 into DER, Multibroadcast or Radio Rentals branches. Some stores were also converted to the Fona fascia, franchised from a Danish electrical retailer, marketed as “The electrical store from Denmark” with adverts starring Britt Ekland at the time.[1]

Few observers were surprised by the reduction in profitability that resulted from this unconventional business tactic, and fewer still were surprised when Thorn closed the remaining 285 Rumbelows shops and thirty five Fona stores in February 1995.[2]

Rumbelows had been losing £12 million yearly, and had never made any profit in its twenty four years of existence.[3][4] Some stores were sold to the German retail chain of PCs, Escom, but in July 1996, Escom itself subsequently folded following financial difficulties.[5] In the 1980s, Martin Dawes (born c. 1945) would carry on the family name in the electrical and electronic retailing sector, with his mobile phone business, which he then sold to Cellnet in March 1999 for £130 million.[6]

Football sponsorship

For two seasons from 1990 to 1992, Rumbelows were the title sponsor of the English Football League Cup, an association football professional competition.

References
  1. "Thorn EMI pulls plug on its 'beached whale'". Independent.co.uk. 8 February 1995.
  2. "An empty former branch of Rumbelows in January 2007". flickr.com. 14 January 2007. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  3. Shepherd, John (4 February 1995). "Rumbelows set to disappear". The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  4. Cope, Nigel (8 February 1995). "Thorn EMI pulls plug on its 'beached whale'". The Independent. Retrieved 16 January 2013.
  5. "Escom files for bankruptcy". www.zdnet.com. 16 July 1996. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  6. "Martin Dawes sold for £130m". theguardian.com. 8 March 1999. Retrieved 8 August 2017.
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