- Lillywhites
Lillywhites is a
sports retailer based atPiccadilly Circus ,London ,United Kingdom . It is currently a division ofSports World International History
In the 19th century, several members of the Lillywhite family were leading cricketers; another,
Fred Lillywhite , organised the first overseas tour by an England team to North America in 1859.The shop has been based at its current location on
Piccadilly Circus since 1925, catering to the London market with specialist departments forcroquet andreal tennis . Lillywhites' policy was to compete on quality products (which were charged at premium prices). Until 2002, Lillywhites also had locations in other major cities in the United Kingdom includingLeeds ,Newcastle upon Tyne andNottingham , with the Leeds store being a very large five storey building that opened in 1996 onThe Headrow in the former Schofields department store.ports World
In the face of competition from other retailers offering more goods at lower prices, Lillywhites fell into financial difficulty. In 2002 it was sold to
Sports World International , the owner of theSports World retail chain, and some of the former outlying stores were rebranded asSports World . A number of exceptions to this are the branches at Rotherham Retail Park,Lakeside Shopping Centre inWest Thurrock ,Essex ,Dalton Park ,Murton andClarks Village ,Street ,Whiteley and The Glades, Bromley. The store in Leeds city centre was closed completely in 2004.Lillywhites has changed a lot since under the ownership of
Sports World International . Before the change (during the 1990s), Lillywhites' policy was to compete on quality but now discount goods seem to be the agenda and the all Lillywhites branches are essentially now Sports World trading under a different name with the sports catered for limited to the most popular.External links
* [http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/1292/2500.php Store information]
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