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| Fate | Merged with Shop Direct |
|---|---|
| Successor | Littlewoods Shop Direct Group |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Defunct | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Liverpool, Merseyside, England |
| Key people | Sir John Moores (Founder) David and Frederick Barclay (Final Owners) |
| Industry | Mail order, Football pools |
| Subsidiaries | Littlewoods Index |
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923. It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970's. In 1981, it expanded to a call center, processing orders via telephone. At its height, there were about 4,000 employees working for Littlewoods. However, the catalogue market was transformed with the emergence of the internet, and phone transactions slowly diminished. In 2000, The Moores family sold the Littlewoods Pools business to Rodime.
In October 2002 the Moores family sold the shopping and catalogue business to David and Frederick Barclay for £750m. In 2004 Littlewoods was merged with Kays Catalogues to create the Littlewoods Shop Direct Group (now Shop Direct Group). The amalgamation of the two businesses lead to the closure of many of both brands distribution centres. Kays main centres in Worcester and Leeds were closed, while Littlewoods main operations in Liverpool were cut back.
Many of the Littlewoods high-street shops were subsequently sold en-masse to Primark.
 The Littlewoods Building in Liverpool, the former headquarters of Littlewoods. |
 A former Littlewoods branch in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. |
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