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GUS plc

Fate	Split-up/Sold Off Part merged with Littlewoods
Successor	Home Retail Group/Littlewoods Shop Direct Group
Founded	1900 as Universal Stores
Defunct	October 10, 2006
Location	London, England
Industry	Conglomerate
Products	Mail order/Conglomerate
Key people	Sir Victor Blank (Chairman), Terry Duddy (ARG Chief Exec)
Peak size	54,926 employees
Subsidiary	Argos Retail Group Experian

GUS plc (LSE: GUS) was a FTSE 100 retailing group based in the United Kingdom. GUS is an abbreviation of Great Universal Stores, the company's former name before 2001. On 10 October 2006, the company was split into two separate companies.

The company had two main divisions including:

• ARG – The Argos Retail Group, now demerged to be to Home Retail Group, which consisted of several subdivisions, including
  • Argos (previously an independent company, once owned by British American Tobacco) – the UK's largest catalogue retailer
  • Homebase (formerly owned and founded by J Sainsbury) – a DIY (home improvement) retailer
  • ARG Financial Services – provider of store card services, such as the Argos Card and Argos insurance products.

• Experian – a credit reporting agency

In the year ended 31 March 2005, GUS had sales of £7.8 billion and profits (before goodwill, exceptional items and taxation) of £910 million.

Universal Stores was founded in 1900 as a mail order business in Manchester, England, by Abraham and George Rose. In 1930, the company changed its name to The Great Universal Stores Limited. The next year it was listed on the London Stock Exchange. At this stage, it was the leading mail order business in the UK.

In 1932, Isaac Wolfson joined the company as merchandise controller. He became joint managing director in the same year. He was Chairman from the late 1940s until his retirement in 1987. Through his wealth gained at Great Universal Stores, he established the Wolfson Foundation in 1955. His son, Leonard Wolfson, followed him as Chairman, to be succeeded by David Wolfson (1996–2000).

In 2001 the company changed its name to GUS plc.

In 2004, the company sold its traditional home shopping (catalogues) division to the Barclay twins, who merged it into their Littlewoods business. This included the iconic Great Universal Stores catalogue, from which the company took its name, and completed the departure of GUS from its original business areas. Around the same time, the Barclays announced the closure of the Littlewoods Index retail chain, the principal rival to Argos in the UK, selling around 35 stores to Argos.

In May 2005, it announced that it would divest its stake in Burberry by distributing Burberry shares to its own shareholders. It also stated that it planned to demerge Experian from the retail businesses in the future, but wished to retain Experian for a further period to invest in building up the business first.

On 24 March 2006, Gus announced that it had divested its full shareholding in Burberry. On 28 March 2006, it was announced that the Home Retail Group would be split from the Experian division, with both companies listed separately on the LSE as of 11 October 2006. This effectively means the end of the GUS conglomerate, which has been de-listed now its shares have been split between the two divisions. There will also be 10-15% new equity issued in Experian. Now the GUS plc head office is located in Milton Keynes central business district.

GUS plc ranked as the highest-spending online advertiser in the US, according to Nielson NetRatings, spending over $659m in 2006. Interestingly, the next-ranked online advertiser, Vonage, was a distant second at just over $294m.

• Official website
• Yahoo! profile