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Retailing - 1997
B&Q is planning to open six new warehouse stores in 1998, including outlets in Birmingham, Stockport and Warrington, creating 1,500 jobs.
29-Dec-1997
Sears has sold 44 Shoe City outlets to Brantano of Belgium for an initial £6m, but 39 other shops are being closed.
24-Dec-1997
Betterware, the door-to-door shopping company, has accepted a £117m takeover offer from NatWest Equity Partners which will take the company private.
23-Dec-1997
Austin Reed is to acquire Country Casuals, the troubled clothing retailer, for £26m.
23-Dec-1997
Carpetright is planning to open a further 14 carpet stores in the second half of its financial year as part of an expansion that will result in a national chain of 300 stores.
18-Dec-1997
Sears has sold its Shoe Express retailing chain for £8.3m to a former chairman of Amber Day who plans to retain 185 of the shops and close the remaining 136.
16-Dec-1997
Tesco is to sell Catteau, its French supermarket chain, to Promodes for £225m, due to slow sales growth and difficulties in obtaining planning permission to open more stores.
08-Dec-1997
Readicut is to sell European Carpets, its carpets manufacturing business, to Interface of the US for £30m, and it is now looking for buyers for its UK yarn spinning business and its US carpet business.
06-Dec-1997
Great Universal Stores is acquiring Innovations, the mail-order gadgets company, for £20m, which represents a first major move away from agency mail order towards dealing directly with customers.
05-Dec-1997
Alexon and Electra Fleming are forming a joint venture to acquire Dolcis, the chain of 106 shoe stores, from Sears for £1.6m.
03-Dec-1997
Dawson Holdings is acquiring Johnsons News, the newspaper and magazine wholesaling business, for £32m, giving it about 20% of the market.
03-Dec-1997
NatWest Equity Partners has acquired Artform, the point-of-sale display company, for £38m.
01-Dec-1997
ScS Upholstery, the furniture company, is planning a flotation in order to fund the opening of up to 20 outlets in the Midlands, which will be followed by nationwide expansion.
01-Dec-1997
Tecno Holdings has been set up to acquire Era's chain of 26 Tecno camera and camcorder shops for up to £5.9m.
27-Nov-1997
Unichem is to merge with Alliance Sante Luxembourg in a £300m deal, creating the second-largest pharmaceuticals wholesaler in Europe.
21-Nov-1997
Safeway is to create 2,000 jobs in Northern Ireland in an 18-month expansion programme and is actively looking for sites in the Republic.
17-Nov-1997
Etam, the womenswear retailer, is to be acquired by Etam Developpement of France for £93m, and the revamp of the 214 stores will continue.
13-Nov-1997
Marks & Spencer is planning a £2bn expansion programme that will increase its selling space by a third across the UK, Europe and the Far East, and create 5,000 jobs over the next three years.
05-Nov-1997
Budgens has acquired the 7-Eleven convenience store chain from Jardine Matheson for £5.8m.
22-Oct-1997
Tesco has acquired Sanders Supermarkets, the operator of two supermarkets in Somerset, for £4.9m.
14-Oct-1997
H&C Furnishings has launched a £48m agreed offer for Kingsbury, giving it an additional 79 furniture shops.
09-Oct-1997
Thorntons is to accelerate its store opening programme, aiming to have 507 shops by 2001, and will create 820 jobs.
08-Oct-1997
Books etc, the book retailer, is to be acquired by Borders Group of the US for about £40m, a move which will enable it to continue with plans to set up a chain of superstores.
29-Sep-1997
T&S Stores has launched a £42.8m recommended cash offer for M&W, the chain of 179 convenience stores.
16-Sep-1997
Boots is acquiring Hermal Kurt Herrmann, the German skincare company, from Merck for £174m, and will use Hermal's salesforce to launch its Lutsia range of anti-ageing and anti-acne products into Germany.
11-Sep-1997
GrandOptical Photoservice of France is to acquire Vision Express, the chain of 200 opticians, for about £200m.
02-Sep-1997
Iceland Group, the frozen food retailer, is launching a nationwide home delivery service, creating 1,000 jobs.
02-Sep-1997
Boots is selling its AG Stanley home-decorating stores to Alchemy Partners, the venture-capital group, for a nominal sum.
29-Aug-1997
Brown & Jackson has agreed the £6.5m acquisition of WEW, the discount retailer that trades as What Everyone Wants and The Store.
29-Aug-1997
Dixons is planning to double the size of The Link, the chain of 100 high street communications stores, within two years, creating 800 jobs.
28-Aug-1997
Brown & Jackson is planning to buy Your More Store, the chain of 127 discount stores, for £7.6m.
20-Aug-1997
NBTY, the US vitamin retailer, has bought the Holland & Barrett chain of over 400 health food stores from Gehe for £100m, and is expected to focus the group on own-label products.
09-Aug-1997
Dixons is planning to create up to 3,000 jobs in its chain of electrical goods stores, following a 17% increase in sales in the first nine weeks of the year.
10-Jul-1997
Waterstone's, the WH Smith subsidiary, is to open bookshops in up to 50 small towns, each carrying about 25,000 titles, creating 400 jobs.
08-Jul-1997
Ventura, the customer service operation owned by the Next Group, is to create a further 100 jobs at its call centre in Leeds.
17-Jun-1997
The Mister Minit international shoe repair and key-cutting business is to be sold to the UBS banking group for undisclosed terms.
10-Jun-1997
Powerhouse is planning to open a further six electrical superstores this year with a stronger focus on white goods, creating about 100 jobs.
27-May-1997
Storehouse, the owner of the Mothercare and Bhs chains, is to invest £120m in store information systems and new shopping formats, creating about 1,000 new jobs.
23-May-1997
Marks & Spencer plans to add a further 1,700 jobs this year in order to support rising sales, and it also wants to double the number of stores in continental Europe to 70.
21-May-1997
Kingfisher is acquiring BCC Holding Amstelveen, the Dutch electrical retailer with 17 stores, for £34m.
21-May-1997
Safeway is to create an additional 1,600 customer service jobs at existing stores, as well as a further 6,400 jobs at 34 new stores planned for the next two years.
15-May-1997
Adminstore, which trades under the Europa Foods and Harts the Grocer names, has announced a £7.4m agreed takeover offer for Cullens, the convenience store chain.
10-May-1997
Hamleys has acquired Hobbies & Models, which owns 11 Toy Stack shops in the south east, for £8.7m.
10-May-1997
Wickes is to sell Wickes Continental, the chain of 39 DIY stores in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, to Bricorama of France for £7.5m, which will reduce Wickes' group debt by £12.5m.
01-May-1997
Sears has reached agreement to sell the Freemans mail order business to Littlewoods for £367m, and also plans to demerge the Selfridges department store next year as part of a restructuring aimed at stemming the losses in its £465m footwear business.
30-Apr-1997
C&J Clark, the shoe group, is selling its factory outlets to MEPC, the property company, for £80m.
16-Apr-1997
Great Universal Stores has acquired Direct Marketing Technology, the US marketing database company, for £180m.
15-Apr-1997
The Peacock and Millets chains of clothing retailers are being sold to a management buy-out for £78m, and plans are being prepared to open 40 stores a year.
04-Apr-1997
Wm Morrison is planning a £200m expansion programme for its supermarket chain, including two superstores in the south of England, creating 2,250 jobs.
21-Mar-1997
Rosebys has acquired Bensons, the bed retailer, for up to £25m.
27-Feb-1997
Watson & Philip plans to open 500 more Alldays convenience stores by 2000 using a unique regional franchising scheme.
23-Jan-1997