The original company began in 1923 as a
football pools (sports betting) company, known as Littlewoods Pools. After making a loss in the first season of operation, John Moores' original partners withdrew from the venture. Moores persisted with family assistance and by 1932 was in a position to expand the business into mail-order retailing. The first mail-order catalogue was sent to existing subscribers to the pools and the take-up, mostly women, formed 'clubs'. In effect, they became retail agents, collecting money for goods ordered from the catalogue from friends and family and distributing goods shipped to them. The mail-order business expanded and the first Littlewoods high-street store opened in 1937 in
Blackpool. Littlewoods ran a division and e-commerce website dedicated to the Irish market, but in July 2022, 'Littlewoods Ireland' became 'Very Ireland', adopting the parent organisation's flagship brand name.
Retail arm Littlewoods was among the key retailers to relocate from town-centre stores to new developments, mostly in
enterprise zones, to take advantage of the financial incentives they offered. The
Merry Hill store, which opened on 14 November 1989, was a notable example. The catalogue market was transformed with the emergence of the Internet and phone transactions slowly diminished after the mid-1990s. It was around this time that Littlewoods began closing its stores, with the outlet at Merry Hill in the
West Midlands being one of the first outlets to close in 1996. In October 2002, the Moores family sold the shopping and catalogue business to
David and Frederick Barclay for £750 million. The closure of 119 Littlewoods stores was also announced in 2005. Around 40 stores were sold to the
Primark retail business, owned by
ABF.
Football pools Littlewoods pools business was the first to be established and grew into the biggest
football pools business in the world. It went on to become the first sponsor of the
FA Cup and its winners were often celebrated – notably
Viv Nicholson, whose experience was immortalised in the book, play, and musical
Spend, Spend, Spend. In June 1961, Littlewoods took over Sherman's Pools. The launch of the
National Lottery in 1994 led to a major advertising campaign to distinguish Littlewoods Pools from other forms of betting and this proved successful in the short term. In 2000, The Moores family sold the Littlewoods Pools business to
Rodime, a shell business part owned by
Bank of Scotland. At that stage, Littlewoods' football pools still had a million people playing a week and the sale, for £160m, included its online venture bet247.co.uk and its phone betting arm Bet Direct. The terms of the deal enabled the Littlewoods name to be used for a further ten years. Littlewoods used the reverse of bus tickets on which to advertise.
Fire at Littlewoods building On 2 September 2018, the
Littlewoods Pools building, the former headquarters of Littlewoods Pools caught fire. There were no reported injuries, the building having stood empty since 2003. == References ==