| Big W | |
| Type: | Subsidiary of Woolworths |
| Genre: | Large Format Store |
| Fate: | Format abandoned, re-branded as Woolworths |
| Location: | England, United Kingdom |
| Locations: | 21 |
| Area Served: | United Kingdom |
| Products: | General merchandise |
| Owner: | Kingfisher (1998–01) Woolworths (2001–2004) |
| Parent: | Woolworths Group |
| Subsid: | Out-of-Town Stores |
| Website: | bigw.co.uk (Archive of former site from late 2003) |
Big W (later named Woolworths Big W) was a British retail chain owned by the Kingfisher Group (later Woolworths Group PLC) in the United Kingdom, which operated between 1998 and 2004. Big W stores were large format out-of-town megastores that featured products from all of Kingfisher's main retail chains at the time, consisting of Comet, B&Q, Superdrug and Woolworths.
Following the split of Kingfisher, alongside low sales and poor financial results, Woolworths scrapped the Big W format in 2004, selling a quarter of the stores off while keeping the rest, operating them in a smaller format known as Woolworths Out-of-Town Stores. These stores remained in operation until the administration and closure of Woolworths in 2008.
Prior to the formation of Big W, Woolworths already had prior experience with operating large out-of-town stores. Under their former parent company, The F.W. Woolworth Company opened their first British Woolco store in Oadby, Leicestershire in 1967. The store was and offered many products like groceries, fashion and household products under one roof. 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, so were the Woolco stores. Eventually, the now-named Woolworths decided to exit the out-of-town market and sold them off to supermarket chain Gateway in 1986, 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 1982, 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. Under the new owners, the company went on to purchase electrical retailer Comet in 1984 and beauty retailer Superdrug in 1987. With the large amount of brands outside the now-named Woolworths brand, the company renamed itself to Kingfisher Group PLC in 1989.
As Kingfisher continued to expand, the company gained a hefty £100 million profit in 1997, and began the process of refurbishing Woolworths stores under three different subcategories - "City" stores, "Heartland" stores, and "Local" stores, which had proven to be very successful.[1] With the profit, Kingfisher began plans to take over the supermarket chain Asda with one of the plans if the purchase came into fruition was to create an out-of-town megastore chain that would bring the best of Kingfisher and Asda in one building, however at the last minute - Walmart instead took over the chain.[2]
However, despite the failed merger, the CEO of Kingfisher Group, Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy decided to go on his own, and publicly revealed the Big W brand in 1998, which brought the best of Kingfisher's retail chains under one roof. In the same year, the Canadian-born Bob Hetherington was chosen to run the chain. Bob had experience with the American F.W. Woolworth Company as he had previously run the American Woolco chain before all the stores were closed in 1982. Hetherington wanted the Big W stores to be fun places to shop in and to offer entertainment during the weekend.
A location in Edinburgh, Scotland was chosen to be the first Big W location. Construction started in September 1998, with the large 100000square feet store opened in June 1999, proving to be a massive success for the Kingfisher Group as it attracted 30,000 shoppers in its first three days. The shop contained a Burger King fast food outlet and a Peacocks clothing concession in addition to the main range.[3]
Prior to this opening, Kingfisher announced on 30 April 1999 to purchase the Co-Op Homeworld retail chain, taking over 10 of the 12 stores.[4] While Kingfisher announced that most of them would be converted into B&Q Warehouse stores, others would be converted into Big W stores. In August 1999, they officially announced that the former 80000square feet Co-Op Homeworld unit in Coventry would become the second Big W store, for an October opening date.[5] Plans were also made to convert the former Rotherham and Bristol Co-Op Homeworlds as Big W stores for Early 2000 openings, soon announced to be opening in March of that year.[6]
As stores continued to open, the chain expanded further. 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".[7] At the same time, the next four stores in the chain, located in Stockton, Redruth, Bradford and Glasgow, would open between October and November.[8]
In 2000, Kingfisher Group PLC announced their plans to demerge their business, restructuring to focus exclusively on the DIY and Electrical markets. In 2001, the company spun off the General Merchandise division including Big W into a separate public company called Woolworths Group PLC, while Superdrug was later sold to Dutch company Kruidvat in the same year.
The demerger of Kingfisher heavily affected the Big W chain as a whole, as the purpose of the chain was now taunted by the loss of almost all of its major suppliers, essentially making Big W simply large Woolworths stores. With this, it was renamed Woolworths Big W. Despite this, stores continued to open up under the new name, with some existing stores having their logo on the top of the building changed to the modified version. In 2003, Woolworths started to open stores less frequently, as the chain was beginning to become very unprofitable for the company.
Following a period of losses, Woolworths confirmed in 2004 that it would abandon the Big W concept.[9] [10] Woolworths announced that they would sell the stores that had planning permission to sell groceries, while the remaining stores would be downsized and become Woolworths Out-of-Town Stores. The first Big W stores to receive the downsize treatment were the Hartcliffe and Norwich branches. A store in Byker originally planned to open as a Big W also gained the format, except opening as a large Woolworths store.
On 9 January 2005, Woolworths sold the seven stores that sold groceries to Tesco and Asda,[11] which also included a Big W store in Grimsby that never opened. Within this time, all remaining Big W stores were converted into the Woolworths Out-of-Town formats, with the gross internal floor area of the remaining sites reduced to an optimum trading size of around 40000to. Most stores continued to share space with Peacocks, while others were shrunk down in size entirely.[9]
Much like Woolco, Big W stores were found in retail parks or out-of-town areas around the UK and supplied goods from the four main Kingfisher brands. When the stores became Woolworths Big W, they supplied only Woolworths products. These remained mainly the same when the stores became regular Woolworths Stores. Some stores later introduced Woolworths Clearance Outlets at the back of the stores.
| Location | Opened | Closed | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberdeen | July 2003 | January 2005 | Announcement of sale to Asda in January 2005. | |
| Beckton | 2002 | 2 January 2009 | Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion. The building was slowly converted into a portion of the retail park it was located on, the left side was split up into units for Family Bargains (Later 99p Stores and Poundland, currently empty) and Home Bargains, with the remaining half of the store being converted into a Selco Builders Warehouse outlet in 2016. | |
| Bolton | 17 August 2001 | 14 February 2005 | Announcement of sale to Asda in January 2005. Reopened as such in May 2005.[12] | |
| Bradford | November 2000 | January 2009 | Located at the Victoria Centre, Girlington. Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion. In June 2009, The Range took over the spot.[13] | |
| Byker | Never Opened | Never Opened | The store was constructed for the format but instead opened up as a 95000square feet Woolworths/Peacocks store in 2004. The store was converted to an Asda in 2010. | |
| Catcliffe, Rotherham | March 2000 | 2008/2009 | Located in the Catcliffe Retail Park. Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion and a Specsavers opticians in 2008. Following a period of the building remaining empty, Boundary Mill Stores moved into the space in 2012[14] and currently trades as Boundary Outlet. | |
| Cheetham Hill | 2004/2005 | 2 January 2009 | It was turned into a Woolworths almost immediately in the same year. The retail unit was soon split up into a Matalan (Which closed in 2019) and a B&M Bargains. The former Matalan portion of the unit (and the adjacent USC unit) were merged to form an Evans Cycles store in 2021. | |
| Coventry | 29 October 1999 | 5 February 2005 | It was the first of the Big W stores that gained planning permission to sell food products. Announcement of sale to Tesco in January 2005, and reopened as a Tesco Extra within the middle of the year.[15] | |
| Coatbridge | 2002 | 2005 | Announcement of sale to Tesco in January 2005. Reopened as a Tesco Extra. | |
| Edinburgh | June 1999 | 5 January 2009 | The first store to open. Also included Peacocks and Burger King outlets. After remaining empty for almost four years, the building was converted into The Range in 2013. | |
| Filton, Bristol | March 2000 | 2 January 2009 | Located at the Abbey Wood Retail Park. Formerly traded as a Co-Op Homeworld. The store was downsized into two retail units in 2005 with Woolworths and Peacocks taking the left half and TJ Hughes taking over the other. After a long period of the building being empty after the closure of both stores (Woolworths in 2009, TJ Hughes in 2011), planning permission was granted in March 2012 to demolish the building and replace it with a new-built Asda store.[16] which eventually came into action the following year, with Asda opening in November 2013, and a B&M Bargains opening in February 2014. | |
| Glasgow | October/November 2000 | 2008/2009 | Located in the Forge Retail Park. Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion. In August 2011, Tesco announced they would convert the building into a Tesco Extra store which opened a couple of months later.[17] Tesco announced the closure of this store in January 2022 after a dispute with the lessor and its poor financial performance, closing at the end of April.[18] The building is currently empty. | |
| Grimsby | Never Opened | Never Opened | The store was constructed, built, and had hired staff, but never opened as a Big W. It was one of the seven stores included as part of the Tesco purchase and opened in May 2005 as a Tesco Extra.[19] | |
| Hull | 2003 | 2005 | Announcement of sale to Asda in January 2005. | |
| Hartcliffe, Bristol | 2001? | 2 January 2009 | Was downsized in 2005, with Woolworths/Peacocks taking one half of the unit and Tesco Homeplus (now B&M Homestore) taking over the other half. The store reopened as "What" in 2009, and soon became The Range in 2011. | |
| Loughborough | 2004 | 2008/2009 | Located at The Rushes Shopping Centre, and was one of the last Big W stores to open up. In February 2010, Tesco took over the building space.[20] | |
| Newark-on-Trent | unknown | 2008/2009 | The store downsized as a Woolworths with TK Maxx taking over the other half. After closure, it was split up into several retail units. | |
| Newport | 2002 | 2008/2009 | located on 28 East Retail Park. The store was downsized in 2005 with Woolworths taking over the left half of the unit and TJ Hughes taking over the right. Following closure, the ex-Woolworths portion reopened as The Range in 2011 while the TJ Hughes remained empty after its closure until becoming a B&M Home Store in November 2017. | |
| Norwich | 2002 | 2008/2009 | Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion and down-size in 2005. Following closure, Matalan took over the unit. | |
| Redruth/Poole | October/November 2000 | 4 February 2005 | Announcement of sale to Tesco in January 2005. Reopened as a Tesco Extra in July.[21] [22] | |
| Small Heath, Birmingham | 2001 | 2008/2009 | Following its closure, planning permission was granted in April 2009 to convert the shop into seven smaller units.[23] Following that, the area was renamed the St. Andrews Retail Park. | |
| Stockton | 13 October 2000[24] | 30 December 2008 | Also included a Peacocks outlet after conversion. The store was converted into the Stockton Shopping Park in 2010, with the building forming four retail units, which currently consist of The Range, B&M Home Store, The Food Warehouse (Formerly Bargain Buys) and Smyths. | |
| Tamworth | 2001 | 26 April 2008 | The store was downsized in 2005, with Woolworths taking over the left retail unit and Marks & Spencer taking over the right half. The store closed after Woolworths accepted an offer from Marks & Spencer for expansion, which the expanded M&S store opened in December 2008. |