[1][3] In 1954, Sears bought Haverton Holdings for £3.5 million, which owned Furness Shipbuilding Company and a controlling interest in listed hosiery knitting machine manufacturer, Bentley Engineering, in which Clore was a board member.
[3] By the year-end, the group divided itself into four sub-divisions (British Shoe Corporation; Engineering; Motor distribution, and Mappin and Webb).
[1][9] They later acquired 20% of Asprey & Co.[10][11] In 1973, a financial services arm of Selfridges was created which eventually became SearsCard, with its primary function to provide store card facilities for retail companies within the Sears Group.
In January 1975, the group was made up of the following divisions: Footwear retailers and manufacturers (British Shoe Corporation, now also including Curtess); Departmental stores (Selfridges, Miss Selfridge, Lewis's and Robinson & Cleaver); Engineering; Motor vehicle sales and service (SMT Sales and Service, Ritchies, Shaw & Kilburn, Gilbert Rice); Jewellery retailers (Mappin & Webb, Garrard & Co, Arthur Conley & Son) and miscellaneous (Liverpool bakers S Reece & Sons); Licensed betting offices (William Hill); Linen hire and industrial laundries (Sears Industries) and knitwear manufacture (Highlander).
[11] In 1982, jewelers Conley were renamed Walker & Hall and in 1983, Sears acquired a 20% interest in Central Independent Television.
[15][3] The same year the company was renamed Sears plc when it had the following brands: Fosters; Wallis; Selfridges; William Hill; Olympus Sports; Saxone; Garrard; Roland Cartier; Mappin & Webb; SMT; Adams; Shaw & Kilburn; Freeman Hardy Willis; Dolcis; Gilbert Rice; Miss Erika; Miss Selfridge; Butler; Galliford; Trueform; Lilley & Skinner; Manfield; Lewis's; Curtess; and Millets.
[10] In April 1986, it supported a management buyout of Mallett Antiques, investing £6 million for a 50% stake but reducing it to 26% by the listing of the company in March 1987.
[17] In 1988 Freemans was fully acquired by Sears for £480 million,[17] turning it into one of the country's largest retail organisations.
It also meant that Freemans could now easily source and stock popular high street brands and promote them in its catalogue.
[23] By 1996, the group had the following divisions: Footwear (Shoe Express, Shoe City, Saxone, Dolcis, Curtess, Roland Cartier, Cable & Co, Hush Puppies, Lilley & Skinner); Home Shopping (Freemans); Selfridges; Sears Clothing (Richards, Wallis, Warehouse, Miss Selfridge, Adams Childrenswear, The Outfit); Sears Group Properties (including The Selfridges Hotel, Part ownership of The St. Enoch Shopping Centre in Glasgow, 3,000 retail shops being mostly leasehold with a few freehold jewels such as 190 Oxford Street and 330 Oxford Street known as the Top Shop flagship store.
[26] The remaining parts of British Shoe Corporation were sold by early 1998, at an accounting loss of £150 million.
[28] Millets was sold in March 1996, ending the Sports & Leisure division[23] and Selfridges was demerged in July 1998.
[29] The womenswear business (comprising Warehouse, Richards, Wallis, Outfit and Miss Selfridge) was subsequently transferred to Arcadia Group for £151 million.
These included Parc Fforestfach (A483 Pontardulais Road, Swansea) and Westway Cross Retail Park (Greenford).
[citation needed] Adams Childrenswear - trading as 'Adams Kids' - remained on the high street until 2010, after some difficulties over the years, and collapsed into administration twice in the late 2000s;[32] former Stead & Simpson chairman John Shannon purchased a portion of the chain's outlets and the Adams brand,[33] before the company fell into administration for a third time in 2010.