Acquisition of Holdrons, 1940

In brief

Holdrons was a small department store in Peckham, South London. It was one of 15 other branches that joined the Partnership as a result of the acquisition of the Selfridge Provincial Stores Group (SPS) in 1940. Very little information on Holdrons is available in the archives, principally because the shop lasted a paltry 8 years in the Partnership before it was sold on. Rudimentary information is available in the Gazettes of 1940-1948, however, the effects of war have of course blighted the extent of correspondence during this period. Therefore, if you have any further information or photographs of Holdrons during its years in the Partnership, please feel free to comment below.

Make do and mend

Upon joining the Partnership in 1940, Holdrons Ltd of London had a recorded a turnover for the previous year of £357,490, a very strong performance. In 1941, in a bid to reduce to reduce the number of separate companies in the SPS group, Holdrons Ltd was acquired by Cole Brothers of Sheffield. Although it would continue to trade as Holdrons (albeit without the ‘Ltd’), the shop would belong to Cole Brothers Ltd. The war years in Holdrons were spent in a similar vein to many other of London’s department stores. Fire watchers sat on roofs, funds and charities were supported in a bid to raise much needed capital, resources and morale. In 1943, a Make Do and Mend’ department was opened in-store, specialising in the repair and sale of damaged stock. This characterised the attitude of Holdrons and the wider Partnership.