[1] The company was bankrupt by 1941 and was purchased by Charles Clore for £45,000,[1] who subsequently expanded the business before selling it on for £800,000[1] in 1949[2] to United Drapery Stores.
[3] From the 1960s to the 1990s, an expansion of the number of stores[5] saw it as a ubiquitous part of almost every British high street and shopping centre, selling fashion clothing designed to appeal to young women.
[7] With the financial troubles suffered by the Storehouse group in the late 1980s, Richard Shops began to lose direction at a time when the high street was becoming a more competitive place for fashion retailers.
Since 1972 the men's clothing retailer Burton had been expanding its chain of women's fashion stores under the TopShop brand, and in 1979 it acquired Richard Shops' long-time rival Dorothy Perkins.
Not only did Principles manage to capture something of the mood of the late 1980s in its designs, but it represented the most direct assault to date by Burton on the largely middle-class customer base of Richard Shops.