Thorntons in The 80s
Tony and Peter Thornton now started to investigate the opportunity to purchase a business in the USA as a diversification, this entailed many visits across the Atlantic taking Peter away from his role as Joint MD for retailing. John asked the Board to appoint him as sole MD in view of this. It was agreed and Peter then became Group Development Director in 1981. In October 1982 Thorntons opened their first shop in the USA in Water Tower Place shopping mall in downtown Chicago. This was followed by another shop in Woodfield Mall about two weeks later.
A further momentous decision was taken in 1982 which was to purchase a large piece of land near Alfreton in Derbyshire for the construction of a new factory which started in 1983. Factory capacity at Belper and Sheffield was now nearly fully utilised and provision had to be made for further space.
Tony Thornton retired in January 1984 and Peter became Chairman, Phase 2 of the construction of the new factory started in the middle of that year. By the end of 1984 the company had six shops now trading in the USA but it was still failing to achieve that elusive profit. On 3 November 1984 Norman Thornton died. On 15 March 1985 the new factory at Alfreton was opened by HM the Queen.
In late December 1986 the decision was taken by the Board to seek a public listing for the business to take place probably in October 1987. Peter Thornton resigned from the company in July 1987 and the public listing took place the following year, 1988 when the profit reached £15.045 million (in current terms), a margin of 14.37%.
The Thornton family have continued to play an active role in the business, and it was only in 1996 that a non-Thornton CEO (Roger Paffard) was appointed.
The 2009 results show turnover increasing to £214.8 million, but operating profit decreasing to £7.94 million. There is a significant impact of seasonality on the sales demand and a number of strategies have been undertaken to attempt to address this issue – however, 35% of sales are still in the seven-week period before Christmas and a further 10% before Easter. The impact of this on both manufacturing and service are significant, with temporary staff covering positions.
Following a strategic review in June 2011, Thorntons announced it would close between 120 and 180 of its shops.
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