Famous Army Stores Ltd. was a major independent retailer of camping equipment, outdoor clothing footwear and army supplies. It was based in Garston, Liverpool, It had been owned and managed by the well known Wilson family of Liverpool,whose business interests had included the Starways Airline which operated out of Liverpool. But in 1996 a management buy-out was carried out by Financial Director, Graham Smith and two colleagues. The chain then rapidly grew from 100 stores to 200 in an amazing change of fortune with a turnover of £50 million. Foot and mouth disease plunged the once profitable business into severe debt, with the company's bankers cancelling the companies overdraft the company was placed in administration. The preferred bidder and eventual owner, Blacks Leisure Group (Blacks), acquired 47 stores and all of the stock for £1.7 million. While Blacks retained all of the staff from the 47 stores, most of the managers left the business as the stores' brands were changed to Millets or Blacks.
Famous quotes containing the words famous, army and/or stores:
“Towns are full of people, houses full of tenants, hotels full of guests, trains full of travelers, cafés full of customers, parks full of promenaders, consulting-rooms of famous doctors full of patients, theatres full of spectators, and beaches full of bathers. What previously was, in general, no problem, now begins to be an everyday one, namely, to find room.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)
“A poor widow, by the name of Baird, has a son in the Army that for some offence has been sentenced to serve a long time without pay, or at most, with very little pay. I do not like this punishment of withholding pay—it falls so very hard upon poor families.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“When their stores are full, idiots are considered wise.”
—Punjabi proverb, trans. by Gurinder Singh Mann.