Beginning with a drapery shop in Liverpool, a chain of department stores was built up, often by taking over rival retailers.
Besides being the first employer in Liverpool to give staff a half day off each week, he also set up a trust fund for retired employees.
In the 1880s he began investing in other enterprises including railways, and in 1889 became director of Evans & Owen Ltd in Bath, the shop started by his uncle.
Over the years the store expanded, but in the 1920s 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 (originally designed as a luxury hotel) was erected.
The company then purchased rival chain T. J. Hughes, after a visit by then chairman Duncan Norman,[6] and moved that firm's Liverpool store into the empty London Road premises.
G W Robinson was sold in 1982 to Canadian businessman Joseph Segal and John Levy,[9] while T. J. Hughes was split off as a separate entity.
The company was then stripped of its assets, which included the closure of the flagship Liverpool branch of Owen Owen, and was cut from twelve stores to one, Lewis's of Liverpool, following the sale of many stores to other chains including Allders and Debenhams.
[17] 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 Merchant Retail Group and purchasing Esslemont & MacIntosh from the Esslemont family.
[19] One of the reasons given for the company's demise was the disruption caused by the Big Dig, a series of regeneration projects in Liverpool city centre.