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73-482: WH Smith PLC , trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith , and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son ), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon , England, which operates a chain of high street , railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company

146-524: A "50 per cent increase in music revenues from day one." Further to the deal, Virgin would get 1% of all turnover in the stores, in conjunction with offering Brazin a £2 million loan facility. Brazin also made a commitment to restrict the size and proximity of its Sanity stores in the United Kingdom to ensure they did not pose a large competitive threat to Virgin's other music shops. Early in 2002, Brazin experienced multiple delays in rebranding

219-591: A 12,000+ signature petition. In mid-November it emerged that the restrictions had been removed from all UK shooting magazines. On 14 October 2013, WHSmith took their website offline because "unacceptable titles were appearing on their website". These were e-books with themes of abuse. The chain was criticised in 2014 for the condition of its shops, with both analysts and customers accusing the chain of under-investing in its estate. In 2015, an investigation by The Independent revealed that WHSmith and other airport retailers were charging VAT to shoppers travelling outside

292-420: A DBA must be registered with a local or state government, or both, depending on the jurisdiction. For example, California, Texas and Virginia require a DBA to be registered with each county (or independent city in the case of Virginia) where the owner does business. Maryland and Colorado have DBAs registered with a state agency. Virginia also requires corporations and LLCs to file a copy of their registration with

365-467: A DBA statement, though names including the first and last name of the owner may be accepted. This also reduces the possibility of two local businesses operating under the same name, although some jurisdictions do not provide exclusivity for a name, or may allow more than one party to register the same name. Note, though, that this is not a substitute for filing a trademark application. A DBA filing carries no legal weight in establishing trademark rights. In

438-516: A businessperson writes a trade name on a contract, invoice, or cheque, they must also add the legal name of the business. Numbered companies will very often operate as something other than their legal name, which is unrecognizable to the public. In Chile , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Ireland , businesses are legally required to register business names where these differ from

511-458: A closing day party. All the chain's remaining stock was sold to the shops of Oxfam . An Our Price Records branded store was briefly seen in a Virgin Atlantic 1980s styled nostalgia advertisement, screened in the United Kingdom from January 2009. The advert was created to celebrate 25 years of Virgin Atlantic, and ceased airing in mid-2010. www.ourprice.co.uk was a comparison website which

584-589: A failed management buy-out . In August 2000, it was announced that the Our Price name would be dropped from 102 stores, mainly in South East England , in favour of the Virgin name, or VShop. During the announcement, Our Price's commercial director, Neil Boote, told Billboard : "There has been no real investment in the vast majority of (Our Price) stores for a long, long time. Environmentally, they're

657-572: A full-time Irish book buyer; however, the appointment of an Australian, based in London and not in Dublin, drew adverse criticism. In 2013, it opened an additional four shops at Dublin Airport's Terminal 1. Eason's, currently at T1 in Dublin, asked the airport operator to tender for a new contract one year earlier as the retailer blamed a fall in sales on the success of Terminal 2 at Dublin, which carried

730-527: A joint venture with Boots in 1990; Boots acquired WHSmith's share in June 1996. The bookshop chain Waterstone's , founded by former WHSmith executive Tim Waterstone in 1982, was bought in 1989 and sold in 1998. The expanding WHSmith group adopted a new "house style" or corporate identity in 1973, with a new logo and a change of name from W. H. Smith & Son to WHSmith. The new hexagon-shaped logo featured

803-524: A long way away from where we'd like to be." He added, "I'm sure Virgin believes that, if the VShop concept works, it has to have international potential. Frankly, Our Price was just too parochial a brand with no (particularly unique selling points). It epitomised the High Street record store of the '80s." Virgin had no immediate plans for the remaining 127 Our Price branded stores, until they saw how well

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876-490: A move which (with both Our Price and Virgin brands combined) would push them back ahead of HMV in market share. The next year, Virgin/Our Price increased profits by 10%. However, sales dropped by 3% in the year to May 1997, a contraction experienced throughout the industry. Around this time, WH Smith opened 23 new Virgin Megastores, while closing nineteen Our Price branches. Even though Our Price had more outlets, over half

949-458: A registered legal name and a fictitious business name, or trade name, is important because fictitious business names do not always identify the entity that is legally responsible . Legal agreements (such as contracts ) are normally made using the registered legal name of the business. If a corporation fails to consistently adhere to such important legal formalities like using its registered legal name in contracts, it may be subject to piercing of

1022-414: A spokesperson saying "Following a review with HMRC in 2019, and in common with a number of retailers, it was brought to our attention that we had misinterpreted how the statutory wage regulations were applied to our uniform policy for staff working in our stores. This was a genuine error and it was rectified immediately with all colleagues reimbursed in 2019". Trading as In a number of countries,

1095-818: A total of 18 former VShops were converted to the Virgin Megastore Xpress fascia, increasing sales by around 30% year on year. In November 2002, Brazin acquired the remaining 41 VShop music and mobile phone shops, all former Our Price outlets, from the Virgin Group for £2 million. These shops were added to the network already acquired, in addition to the new Sanity shops being established by Brazin. The first of these new outlets opened in October at Conswater, Northern Ireland , and in November at Southsea , followed by Waltham Cross . By January 2003,

1168-402: A trade name to conduct business using a simpler name rather than using their formal and often lengthier name. Trade names are also used when a preferred name cannot be registered, often because it may already be registered or is too similar to a name that is already registered. Using one or more fictitious business names does not create additional separate legal entities. The distinction between

1241-492: Is called a razón social . Our Price Our Price was a British high Street chain of record stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland from 1971 until 2004. Ourprice.com reopened online on 30 April 2024 with new owners. Founded in 1971 by Gary Nesbitt, Edward Stollins and Mike Isaacs, their first store was located in London's Finchley Road . Until 1976, the first six stores were branded The Tape Revolution , by Bob Fowler of Fowler Coates Ltd and concentrated on selling

1314-1169: Is currently in the process of planning 30 kiosk shops in China. Currently, WHSmith sponsor the IPL cricket team ( Sunrisers Hyderabad ) (SRH) in India. In October 2008, WHSmith, together with SSP, opened five branches within Copenhagen Airport , and in April 2009, opened a branch in Stockholm-Arlanda Airport . In 2009, WHSmith opened two shops in Shannon Airport , County Clare , Ireland. A further three shops are operated in Dublin Airport's Terminal Two, which opened in November 2010 and 5 shops in Dublin Airport 's Terminal One, which opened in 2013. The chain promised when winning this latter contract to hire

1387-573: The European Union , then claiming the VAT back from the government and not passing the refund on to customers. This was made possible by the practice of scanning customer's boarding passes at the till point – solely for the benefit of the company – which made the passengers unwitting accomplices in their own deception. After a public outcry, a customer revolt in which many refused to hand over their boarding passes, and an intervention by Parliament ,

1460-671: The ISBN book identifier. WHSmith is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index . In 1792, Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna established the business as a news vendor in Little Grosvenor Street, London. After their deaths, the business — valued in 1812 at £1,280 (equivalent to £107,686 in 2023) — was taken over by their youngest son William Henry Smith , and in 1846

1533-526: The London Stock Exchange . Two years later, it was acquired by WH Smith for £43 million, with Smith's Sound FX immediately absorbed into Our Price. Several members of senior management left the company in 1989 to create the rival MVC , which itself would eventually be bought by Woolworths. In March 1994, WH Smith also bought a majority interest in Richard Branson 's Virgin Music retail chain,

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1606-720: The Times Bookstores banner). WHSmith restarted its Australian operations in March 2011 following the collapse of Angus & Robertson/Borders who held the naming rights in Australia. The first new shop was opened at Melbourne Airport , in the international departures terminal . There are now three outlets at Melbourne Airport, three at Southern Cross railway station and one within Melbourne Central . WHSmith has opened shops in major Indian airports. WHSmith

1679-466: The United Kingdom , there is no filing requirement for a "business name", defined as "any name under which someone carries on business" that, for a company or limited liability partnership, "is not its registered name", but there are requirements for disclosure of the owner's true name and some restrictions on the use of certain names. A minority of U.S. states, including Washington , still use

1752-451: The viscountcy from his mother. After the death of the second Viscount in 1928, the business was reconstituted as a limited company , in which his son, the third Viscount, owned all the ordinary shares. On the death of the third Viscount in 1948, the death duties were so large that a public holding company had to be formed and shares sold to WH Smith staff and the public. A younger brother of the third Viscount remained chairman until 1972, but

1825-408: The "Top 50 Books for Dad" as a Father's Day gift. In October 2012, WHSmith faced criticism from shooters after the sale of shooting magazines to children under 14 was banned, although it is legal for children under 14 to go shooting. The decision appeared to follow a campaign by animal rights activists. The British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC) campaigned against the ban, including

1898-586: The American record chain The Wall, which was sold to Camelot Music in 1998. In March 1998, the company acquired John Menzies 's retail outlets for £68m, which for many years had been the main rival to the company's railway-station outlets. This purchase also cleared the way for WHSmith's retail expansion into Scotland. Prior to the takeover, Menzies's larger Scottish shops (carrying a very similar range of products to High Street WHSmith shops elsewhere) dominated

1971-721: The Coles and SmithBooks names and locations while also opening new namesake superstores . Many SmithBooks locations were eventually closed or converted to Coles; a few locations still retain the name as of 2013. In 2018, WHSmith re-entered the Canadian and American markets through its acquisition of Airport Electronics Retailer InMotion and Marshall Retail Group in 2019. As of 2024, WHSmith owns 320 stores in North America. By 1970, WHSmith had one retail store in both Brussels and Paris. The company retains one shop on Rue de Rivoli in

2044-588: The Our Price stores due to difficulties with landlords , heritage listings, and negotiations with Railtrack . The company also moved the group's headquarters from the former Our Price central London offices to Alperton . The first rebranded Our Price store with Sanity's darker, urban look opened in London's Waterloo station on 23 April 2002, and the second opened at Paddington station on 9 May 2002, to positive customer reactions and strong sales. The Sanity/Our Price outlets were already starting to return on investments, and overall company operating profit rose to 32% in

2117-662: The Sanity/Our Price/VShop network had grown to approximately 130 stores across the country. In September 2003, even after increasing profitability across their store network, Brazin Limited sold all 118 stores of Sanity in the United Kingdom to Lee Skinner's investment company, Primemist Limited, for an estimated £9 million, citing higher expectations not met. At this stage, some shops were yet to be rebranded from Our Price; however, all VShop outlets were gone. Primemist Limited immediately struggled to operate

2190-577: The Smith family's control slipped away, and the last family member left the board in 1996. In 1966, WHSmith originated a nine-digit code for uniquely referencing books, called Standard Book Numbering or SBN. It was adopted as international standard ISO 2108 in 1970, and was used until 1974, when it became the ISBN scheme. From the 1970s, WHSmith began to expand into other retail sectors. WH Smith Travel operated from 1973 to 1991. The Do It All chain of DIY shops originated with an acquisition in 1979, becoming

2263-459: The Steam Press, Cirencester . The younger W. H. Smith used the success of the firm as a springboard into politics, becoming a Member of Parliament (MP) in 1868 and serving as a minister in several Conservative governments. After the death of W. H. Smith the younger in 1891, his widow was created Viscountess Hambleden in her own right; their son inherited the business from his father and

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2336-418: The U.S., trademark rights are acquired by use in commerce, but there can be substantial benefits to filing a trademark application. Sole proprietors are the most common users of DBAs. Sole proprietors are individual business owners who run their businesses themselves. Since most people in these circumstances use a business name other than their own name, it is often necessary for them to get DBAs. Generally,

2409-681: The UK and would instead add stores in airports, railway stations and in the United States and Europe. Also in June, toy retailer Toys "R" Us announced plans to open nine concessions in WHSmith stores, marking the return of the brand's physical presence in the UK after its own stores closed in 2018. In December 2023, the logo was changed as part of a rebranding exercise. The changed stores, which included those in York , Canterbury and Preston , dropped

2482-567: The United Kingdom. In September 2007, it sold its domestic Virgin Megastores in a management buy-out, and they were subsequently renamed Zavvi . The group sold their remaining 77 Our Price branded stores to Brazin Limited in October 2001. Brazin was a major Australian entertainment retailer, which operated the 265 Sanity stores. It paid £2 for the Our Price stores and gained exclusive licence rights in Australia for Virgin Entertainment, which had last traded there nine years earlier, under

2555-540: The VShop chain would be received. Five VShops reopened on 4 September 2000, located in Kensington , Ealing , Notting Hill Gate , Hammersmith and Chatham . VShops continued to stock the most popular CDs, but would concentrate equally on selling an expanded range of VHS video cassettes, DVDs, and Virgin branded mobile phone products, with Virgin Mobile taking up 25% of floor space. These reconfigured stores removed

2628-469: The brand name was bought by WHSmith in March 2013. In October 2013, WHSmith announced that it had bought the ModelZone brand and would sell products under this brand through existing WHSmith shops. In October 2014, WHSmith announced as part of its preliminary statement that it was planning on extending its greetings card offering by launching the low-price brand Cardmarket on a trial basis. According to

2701-443: The bulk of back catalogue CDs from display with the hope that customers could order these instore for home delivery through dedicated computer terminals, which Virgin called Find & Buy kiosks. The so-called 'clicks and mortar' strategy aimed to combine high street shopping with emerging internet shopping trends. Virgin lost out to music and mobile phone competitors such as The Link , The Carphone Warehouse , HMV and MVC , while

2774-682: The centre of Paris , France. However the store in Paris is now branded as Smith & Son. The company acquired Whitcoulls and Bennetts in New Zealand and Angus & Robertson in Australia in 2001 with plans to convert Whitcoulls to WHSmith. However they were later sold off along with those in Hong Kong International Airport (now as Page One ) and in Singapore at Changi Airport , in 2004 (now Times Travel under

2847-529: The chain due to major credit limit reductions from suppliers, and had no alternative but to enter into administration in December 2003. Buyers for the entire business, or individual parts of it, could not be found. By April 2004, administrators BDO Stoy Hayward had closed all the Our Price stores, resulting in the redundancy of 400 staff members. The final Our Price to close, in Chesterfield , hosted

2920-479: The co-ownership of the Virgin Group and Blockbuster Inc . Virgin Megastores were opened in Melbourne and Sydney. In addition to the nominal £2 paid, Brazin paid £900 million to the Virgin Group while getting that exact amount back from Virgin for tax efficiency purposes. Brazin's CEO Ian Duffell said that the music market in the United Kingdom was one of the strongest in the world that year, and he expected

2993-730: The company confirmed in March 2017 that it would pass on the VAT reduction to customers spending over £6, who were travelling outside the EU. In 2015, the company was also criticised for the prices charged in its branches in hospitals, after media investigations found some items to be on sale at significantly higher prices than in high street branches. In May 2018, WHSmith apologised after it was revealed that it had made more than £700 by selling single tubes of toothpaste for £7.99 through its branch in Pinderfields Hospital , Wakefield . The price

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3066-628: The company demerged the retail and news distribution arms of the business into two separate companies: WH Smith plc (retail) and Smiths News plc (newspaper and magazine distribution). In September 2010 WHSmith bought The Gadget Shop from The Entertainer . That year, it also bought online greeting card retailer Funky Pigeon. In April 2011, WHSmith agreed a deal with the legal services provider QualitySolicitors under which QualitySolicitors would place representatives in up to 500 of its UK branches. Past Times went into administration in January 2012, and

3139-479: The company has taken on a number of Post Office branches, mainly within its high street shops. By April 2016, this had reached 107, including former Crown Post Offices, with plans for an additional 61. WHSmith also operate a number of shops within hospitals, following its acquisition of Yorkshire -based newsagent chain United News in March 2008. In addition to its existing joint ventures and franchise shops,

3212-579: The company purchased Cult Pens, a UK-based online retailer of specialist pens, for an undisclosed amount. In 2018, WHSmith acquired the brand InMotion, the largest airport-based electronics retailer in the US. InMotion expanded to operate stores within UK airports including Heathrow , Manchester and Birmingham , as well as overseas in Spain and Australia. In July 2020, WHSmith announced more than 150 redundancies at its head office, representing approximately 18% of

3285-630: The company purchased the existing chain Harlequin Records , which had numerous high street retail sites around the UK. Thereafter, rapid national expansion followed, with the 100th Our Price store opening in the Kings Road , Chelsea, the 200th at Stirling and the 300th in Brixton , South London. In the first half of the 1980s Our Price established itself as the United Kingdom's second largest retailer of records and tapes (with Woolworths

3358-937: The company trialled the smaller format, convenience-based WHSmith Local concept during 2013. Targeted at independent newsagents and post office business owners, a total of 40 such stores were trading and a further 40 planned by the time the 2015 annual report had been published. Since 2011, the company has also opened shops using its Funky Pigeon brand and subsidiary Funky Pigeon.com Ltd which offers stationery and personalised greetings cards both online and via stores. In 2024, WHSmith announced that they had reached an exclusive agreement with Toys R Us owner WHP Global to open Toys R Us concessions inside its stores. Canadian operations initially began in 1950. By 1970, there were 14 stores in Canada. They continued until 1989, when they were sold to domestic owners and renamed SmithBooks. SmithBooks later merged with Coles , forming Chapters , which retained

3431-588: The company website was defunct. The website was subsequently relaunched using the Shopify platform, but has since shut down. Between 2012 and 2021, the Our Price domains and trademarks were acquired by a group of friends – all ageing musicians and DJ's. This online-only iteration of Our Price specialises in vinyl, merchandise and hi-fi audio equipment; with CDs , cassettes and books planned for future release. The Our Price brand relaunched on 30 April 2024,

3504-484: The corporate veil . In English , trade names are generally treated as proper nouns . In Argentina , a trade name is known as a nombre de fantasía ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called a razón social (social name). In Brazil , a trade name is known as a nome fantasia ('fantasy' or 'fiction' name), and the legal name of business is called razão social (social name). In some Canadian jurisdictions , such as Ontario , when

3577-534: The county or city to be registered with the State Corporation Commission. DBA statements are often used in conjunction with a franchise . The franchisee will have a legal name under which it may sue and be sued, but will conduct business under the franchiser's brand name (which the public would recognize). A typical real-world example can be found in a well-known pricing mistake case, Donovan v. RRL Corp. , 26 Cal. 4th 261 (2001), where

3650-465: The firm became W. H. Smith & Son when his only son, also named William Henry , became a partner. The firm took advantage of the railway boom by opening news-stands on railway stations , beginning with Euston in 1848. In 1850, the firm opened depots in Birmingham , Manchester and Liverpool . It also ran a circulating library service, from 1860 to 1961, and a publishing business based at

3723-513: The head office workforce. In November 2020, the company announced that, after a loss of £280 million, it had decided to close 25 stores in the country, noting that eight stores had been closed in 2019. In August 2020, WHSmith launched a new flagship store in Terminal 2 at Heathrow Airport, in collaboration with Well, which features an in-house pharmacy. WHSmith announced in June 2023 that it would not be opening any more stores on High Streets in

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3796-530: The increasing popularity of online shopping rendered the in-store ordering terminals redundant. Despite this, the Virgin Group continued to rebrand Our Price stores to VShop, and by April 2001, 100 Our Price branches had been converted, with the remaining 110 intended to be completed within the year. In addition, Virgin closed another 30 Our Price outlets between 1999 and 2001. In the early 2000s Virgin Group started to scale down its entertainment retail division in

3869-424: The initials of the group on the sides of a box employing a new orange and brown colour scheme, replacing a logo that had been in use since before 1830. This updated visual identity extended throughout the company's operations, specified by a design manual, covering everything from the appropriate use of the logo in retail environments, through the design of decorative elements on wrapping paper and promotional material,

3942-410: The largest). Brand recognition was driven by pun-rich radio advertising built around the "Get Down To Our Price" slogan, which later transferred to television featuring an animated carrier bag called Billy. A sister chain, Our Price Video, was established to capitalise on the growing success of the new VHS tape format, and some towns eventually had two or three Our Price branded stores. Our Price Video

4015-402: The law is to protect the public from fraud, by compelling the business owner to first file or register his fictitious business name with the county clerk, and then making a further public record of it by publishing it in a newspaper. Several other states, such as Illinois , require print notices as well. In Uruguay , a trade name is known as a nombre fantasía , and the legal name of business

4088-615: The layout of stationery, labels and forms, and even crockery, also informing the design of staff uniforms and packaging. In 1986, WHSmith bought a 75% controlling share of the Our Price music retail chain; in the 1990s it also bought other music retailers including the Virgin Group 's smaller (non- Megastore ) shops. The 75% share of Virgin Our Price was sold to Virgin Retail Group Ltd in July 1998 for £145m. WHSmith also owned

4161-563: The majority of long haul traffic and long haul passengers tend to spend more on books. WHSmith opened four branches in Helsinki Airport , Finland in late 2016 and early 2017. The company has a shop in Malta International Airport which was opened in 2016 under a franchise agreement with Miller Distributors. On 19 June 2009, WHSmith apologised after promoting a book on cellar rapist Josef Fritzl as one of

4234-504: The market, and the latter's presence was minimal. For several years, the company's retail arm had difficulties competing with specialist book and music chains on one side and large supermarkets on the other. This led to poor financial performance, and a takeover bid in 2004 by Permira , which fell through. The company reacted to this by disposing of its overseas subsidiaries and its publishing business Hodder Headline , in order to concentrate on reforming its core businesses. In August 2006,

4307-461: The named defendant, RRL Corporation, was a Lexus car dealership doing business as " Lexus of Westminster ", but remaining a separate legal entity from Lexus, a division of Toyota Motor Sales, USA, Inc. . In California , filing a DBA statement also requires that a notice of the fictitious name be published in local newspapers for some set period of time to inform the public of the owner's intent to operate under an assumed name . The intention of

4380-509: The phrase " trading as " (abbreviated to t/a ) is used to designate a trade name. In the United States , the phrase " doing business as " (abbreviated to DBA , dba , d.b.a. , or d/b/a ) is used, among others, such as assumed business name or fictitious business name . In Canada , " operating as " (abbreviated to o/a ) and " trading as " are used, although " doing business as " is also sometimes used. A company typically uses

4453-471: The statement, these trial shops would be in low rent areas and let to WHSmith under short-term leases. The company announced in late 2018 that the trial of Cardmarket would be wound up, with the closure of the Cardmarket stores. This was in addition to the announcement of the closure for at least six WHSmith stores which were deemed economically unviable following a strategic business review. Late in 2017,

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4526-502: The store on Kensington High Street and promotional offices in Wood Lane, White City . It initially focused on the rock album buyer, with regular imports of " cut-out " albums from the United States, a remainder and over-stock store on Charing Cross Road branded as Surplus Records, and a mail order business driven largely by advertising in the music press. These markets fell away as the chain grew substantially from 1980 onwards, when

4599-459: The surname(s) of the sole trader or partners, or the legal name of a company. The Companies Registration Office publishes a searchable register of such business names. In Japan , the word yagō ( 屋号 ) is used. In Colonial Nigeria , certain tribes had members that used a variety of trading names to conduct business with the Europeans. Two examples were King Perekule VII of Bonny , who

4672-469: The term trade name to refer to "doing business as" (DBA) names. In most U.S. states now, however, DBAs are officially referred to using other terms. Almost half of the states, including New York and Oregon , use the terms assumed business name or assumed name ; nearly as many, including Pennsylvania , use the term fictitious name . For consumer protection purposes, many U.S. jurisdictions require businesses operating with fictitious names to file

4745-500: The then-new compact cassette format and eight-track tapes . From 1976, the chain was rebranded as Our Price Records, in response to higher demand for vinyl records over eight tracks or cassettes. In 1988, it was rebranded once again as Our Price Music , as record labels began to distribute the new CD format. In 1993, the by then three-hundred-store chain was renamed for the final time simply as Our Price. The company's headquarters were in London, with an administrative office above

4818-447: The turnover then consisted of sales from stores trading under the Virgin brand with their larger footprints in locations with higher customer traffic. In 1998, WH Smith sold Virgin/Our Price for £145 million to a division of the Virgin Group of companies in response to the stores losing £127 million in the year to date. After this takeover in 1998, the Virgin Group attempted to sell Our Price to its own management team, in

4891-510: The word "Smith" in favour of "WHS". WHSmith founded one of the UK's earliest cable television channels, Lifestyle , which was carried on almost every cable system in the UK and Ireland prior to the start of Sky Television in 1989. By late 1984, the company had bought a 15% stake in Screensport and from January 1986, took over the operations and management when ABC and R Kennedy pulled out. Both channels were closed in 1993. Since 2007,

4964-723: The year to 30 June 2002. In July 2002, the Virgin Group announced that three VShops in Brixton, which had been Our Price's 300th shop, Hounslow and Notting Hill would be relaunched again as Virgin Megastore Xpress, with a move away from mobile phone retailing and return to a larger number of back catalogue products. Another two VShop outlets in Reading and Colchester were relaunched as Virgin Gamestores, selling both gaming software and hardware. By November that year,

5037-447: Was described as an 'error' and WHSmith promised that the proceeds from the sales would be donated to a local charity. The price was restored to £2.49, still more than three times the price of 80p charged in a nearby Tesco . In 2023, the company was found to have broken the minimum wage law, having failed to pay around £1 million to 17,607 of its workers. The company said that this was because of an error related to its uniform policy, with

5110-466: Was established in 2003, it was owned by Our Price Records Limited, a newly incorporated company in June 2003, just months before the retail arm went into administration. The site sold directly to customers online and through locations in third party stores, much like the Virgin find and buy service, and featured products which extended further than the music and entertainment industry. The business went into liquidation in April 2017, and as of September 2019

5183-405: Was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of

5256-553: Was known as Captain Pepple in trade matters, and King Jubo Jubogha of Opobo , who bore the pseudonym Captain Jaja . Both Pepple and Jaja would bequeath their trade names to their royal descendants as official surnames upon their deaths. In Singapore , there is no filing requirement for a "trading as" name, but there are requirements for disclosure of the underlying business or company's registered name and unique entity number. In

5329-517: Was later rebranded under the Playhouse fascia, but failed to establish a significant market share in VHS sales, and it was wound up by then owners WH Smith in 1997. The expansion of HMV by owners Thorn EMI in the late 1980s established a chain of newer, larger stores, which threatened and eventually overtook Our Price in popularity. In 1984, Our Price was the first specialist music store to float on

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