Selfridges

Selfridges, also known as Selfridges & Co., is a chain of upmarket department stores in the United Kingdom that is operated by Selfridges Retail Limited. It was founded by Harry Gordon Selfridge in 1908. The historic Daniel Burnham-designed Selfridges flagship store at 400 Oxford Street in London opened on 15 March 1909 and is the second-largest shop in the UK (after Harrods). Other Selfridges stores opened in the Manchester area at the Trafford Centre (1998) and at Exchange Square (2002), and in Birmingham at the Bullring (2003). During the 1940s, smaller provincial Selfridges stores were sold to the John Lewis Partnership, and in 1951, the original Oxford Street store was acquired by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores. Lewis's and Selfridges were then taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group, owned by Charles Clore. Expanded under the Sears Group to include branches in Manchester and Birmingham, the chain was acquired in 2003 by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million. In December 2021, the Weston family agreed to sell the majority of Selfridges Group for around £4 billion to a joint venture between Thai conglomerate Central Group and Austria's Signa Holding. The acquisition was completed on 23 August 2022. However, after Signa faced financial difficulties and declared bankruptcy, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) acquired Signa's shares in Selfridges, becoming a co-owner alongside the Central Group.

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