Beales Department Stores

Beales Department Stores are based in Bournemouth, where the company began trading in 1881. That year, John Elmes Beale opened Fancy Fair and Oriental House in Old Christchurch Road, selling wares that reflected the growing enthusiasm for Chinese and Japanese design. J E Beale was succeeded by his son Bennett Beale and then by his grandson Frank, who after university at Oxford and LSE, trained at Macy’s in New York. By the late 1960s, the business had extended its reach to a number of towns in the south of England. Frank was succeeded in the 1980s by Nigel Beale, the great-grandson of J E Beale, who remains honorary president of the company. In 1995, the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and embarked on further store expansion. By 2010, the group had over a dozen stores. In 2011 the management acquired a group of eighteen department stores owned by the Anglia Retail Cooperative Society (ARCS). Panther Securities plc, under its chairman Andrew Perloff, bought shares and preference shares in the group, and became landlord of a number of ARCS stores, now trading under the Beales name. In 2015, Andrew Perloff consolidated his interest in the Beales group. His family interests formed a company English Rose Enterprises Limited, which made a successful offer to acquire Beales. English Rose introduced Stuart Lyons as Executive Chairman and Anne Horton as Retail Director, each of whom has valuable professional experience in family-owned department store businesses. Andrew Perloff and his nephew and Finance Director Simon Peters sit as non-executive directors on the board. Beales is returning to its philosophy as a family department store group offering fine brands and products at attractive prices, with loyal and committed staff. Its return to traditional values is encapsulated in the new “Back to Beales” campaign, inviting our customers to come back to our special shopping experience.