Habitat (retailer) - History

History

Terence Conran founded the company in London in 1964, opening his own store to market his Summa range of furniture. The first Habitat store was opened in Fulham Road in Chelsea by Conran, his then wife Caroline, Philip Pollock and the model Pagan Taylor. This store became the Habitat template, with its quarry tiled floor, whitewashed brick walls, white-painted wooden-slatted ceilings and spotlights creating a feeling of space and focusing attention on the product. Conran has said the main reason for the shop's initial success was that Habitat was one of the few places that sold cheap Pasta storage jars just as the market for dried pasta took off in the UK.

The business expanded quickly in the UK throughout the 1960s and internationally with the first overseas store opening in 1973 in Paris. Habitat also published a catalogue that showed a range of products grouped together in pleasant surroundings.

In 1981, the company's shares were floated on the London Stock Exchange and in 1982 merged with Mothercare Group to form Habitat Mothercare Group PLC. The now-listed company bought the furniture retailer Heal's and the Richard Shops fashion chain in 1983. In 1986, the company merged with British Home Stores to form Storehouse plc. In 1992 Habitat was purchased from Storehouse by IKANO. In October 2009, following several years of trading losses, the Kamprad family, who own IKANO, put the company up for sale, and it was sold to Hilco, a restructuring specialist, in December 2009 with the Kamprad family writing off the debts of the company and providing €50 million (£45 million) of working capital while Hilco paid about €15m.