Matalan

Matalan is one of the leading clothing and homeware retailers in the United Kingdom. The retailer offers quality fashion up to half the equivalent high street price. Based in Skelmersdale, Matalan is a British homeware and fashion retailer, founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. It is a privately held company with Jason Hargreaves being the managing director and John Mills being the chairman.

Matalan offers a variety of products for men, women, and children. Most of Matalan’s stores are located in out-of-town locations which are based on a strategy John Hargreaves found to be successful in the United States and the stores launched in Preston in 1985. Each of Matalan’s stores averages about 30,000 feet and have four departments; Men, Women, Kids and homewares. The company introduced its ‘Partyshop’ department in the Preston store in 2007, named as ‘M Party’ and following its success it was included in 13 other stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The following year in 2008, another 55 stores were opened. Currently, Matalan has over 200 stores all over the United Kingdom.

After the potential buy-out of Matalan fell through in 2010, John Hargreaves decided to invest more money into the brand including stores in the UK. The company plans to open another 5/6 stores in Scotland. Plans to open stores outside the UK are in the piping, and soon Matalan could be going international.