Owen Owen opened a drapery shop at 121 London Road in
Liverpool. Over the years the store expanded, but when the city's retail focus
moved away from the London Road area, the Owen family lent the company the
money to move to a better position on Clayton Square where a large
purpose-built department store was erected. The company then purchased rival
chain T J Hughes and moved that firm's Liverpool store into the empty London
Road premises.
Owen Owen then expanded by building a store in Coventry,
which was bombed during World War II. After the war it continued to expand,
purchasing G W Robinson in Canada and adding other stores to the UK portfolio,
the Coventry store being rebuilt on a slightly different site.
A subsidiary company, Plumb (Contract Furnishers and
Shopfitters) Ltd., was created from its own shopfitting department, and had
offices at Bishop Street, Coventry and Kempston Street, Liverpool.
In the 1980s the Owen family sold the business. T J Hughes
was split off and G W Robinson sold. In 1991 the firm purchased several Lewis's
stores from administration and was known briefly under the business name of
'Lewis's Owen Owen', before being taken over by Philip Green.
Then, in early 2005, Philip Green sold his stake in the
business to David Thompson who began a new phase of expansion at Owen Owen,
acquiring Joplings and Robbs from the now defunct Merchant Retail Group and
purchasing Esslemont & MacIntosh from the Esslemont family. The Owen
Owen brand name was no longer used, but remained the name of the operating
company.
On 28 February 2007 Owen Owen entered administration. The
reason claimed for Owen Owen's demise was the disruption in Liverpool city centre
caused by the Big Dig. The Aberdeen, Esslemont & MacIntosh, store was
closed down on 5 May 2007. Also in May 2007, however, the Liverpool, Hexham and
Sunderland stores were sold as a going concern to Vergo Retail Ltd., controlled
by the previous owner of Owen Owen, David Thompson, and enabling the stores to
continue to trade.
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