- Joplings
Joplings is a
department store , located inSunderland ,England . It is now part of the newly formed Vergo Retail Ltd. group of department stores.The store was established in 1804. In December 1954 the store burnt down and operated from temporary space until its present purpose-built building opened in 1956.
In early 2005 the store was purchased from its previous owners, Merchant Retail Group plc, together with
Robbs of Hexham , byLiverpool based Owen Owen Ltd. for£ 5 million [cite news
title =Historic shops sold in £5m deal
work =BBC News
publisher =bbc.co.uk
date =2005-01-19
url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4187745.stm
accessdate =2007-03-17 ] and another three million for stock.Following the takeover Owen Owen held a huge sale prompting fears that the store would close. David Thompson, then owner of the group, assured customers it would be "business as usual".In February 2007, however, Owen Owen Ltd went into receivership [cite news
title =Lewis's bosses call in receivers
work =BBC News
publisher =bbc.co.uk
date =2007-02-28
url =http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/6405391.stm
accessdate =2007-03-17 ] putting the future of the store into further doubt.On
18 May 2007 it was announced that a newly formed company, Vergo Retail, had taken over the three remaining Owen Owen stores. Vergo Retail is spearheaded by David Thompson, former owner of the now defunct Owen Owen group.Currently Joplings is seen as Sunderland's leading department store and, arguably, has one of the finest menswear departments in the city. Fact|date=March 2007 Other departments include Sound & Vision, Wines & Spirits and The Christmas Department.Since early march Joplings, has been able to boast a Hair Salon on the first floor in the store.
External links
* [http://www.joplings.co.uk/ Joplings Website]
Footnotes
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