1920s overview - a change at the top leads to faster growth
       
From 1909 until 1923 the MD of the British Woolworths was Fred Moore Woolworth, the founder's second cousin.

The formula took hold much more quickly in the United Kingdom than it had in the US, and soon established its own distinct personality.

 Fred Moore Woolworth (left), second cousin of the founder and the MD from 1909-23, and William Lawrence Stephenson (right), the one British founder, a Director from 1909 to 23 and MD from 1923-47. (Image with thanks to Bob Tomkys)
       
Success brought great riches to Fred Woolworth, but he continued to lead from the front, spending much of his time in the stores making inspections, and the rest supervising the buying operations - initially in Liverpool and later at the new London head office.

Fred's daughter, Pauline, was married in Westminster Abbey, with the wedding appearing in one of Pathé's earliest news reels. In 1923 Fred Woolworth passed away. Stores were shocked and closed for the rest of the day.

His successor was William Lawrence Stephenson - a founder member of the British company, headhunted by Frank Winfield Woolworth in 1909 as his only British recruit. Woolworth came across Stephenson as a freight clerk for a Staffordshire pottery when on a buying trip back in 1900. He noted in his diary how impressed he was with the young man and that he should recruit him in the future. Stephenson was an inspired choice. He built on the foundations laid by the Woolworths, but he also developed and refined the formula to suit changing tastes and markets in the first half of the 20th century.
       
From the book "<W> Twenty Years of Progress 1909-1928" which was issued as a memento for colleagues and investors, the graphics shows the accelerating pace of growth in the 1920s. It also shows the flagship first store before and after relocation. (Image: Paul Seaton) The range was increased, with many of today's staple products introduced for the first time. It was Stephenson who introduced gramophone records, Ladybird clothing and extended ranges of toys, games and books into the stores, as well as deeper ranges of household items. 

He accelerated the opening of stores, capitalising on the growth of local High Streets and successfully predicting which towns were about to expand.

The new stores were built by Woolworths themselves and were held freehold rather than leased. This allowed the company to build a substantial asset base. During the 1920s the company added 336 stores - compared with only 92 during the 1910s. And, remarkably, they also upgraded or relocated virtually all of the early stores into larger and better premises.
       
The Woolworths store in Spiceal Street, Bull Ring, Birmingham was home to the Regional Office for many years An envelope from the Canadian Woolworths (F. W. Woolworth Co. Limited) can be dated to 1921 because that is when the British company had exactly 100 stores.
       

1920s Gallery Home

20s overview: stepping up the pace   Visit a 1920s store  
Rapid expansion -  an opening every 17 days   Supplier partnerships and product development
The first gramophone records   Play the Little Marvel record "What'll you do"  
Woolies in the community    Alice White in "The Girl from Woolworths"
Sixpenny pops "We'll have a Woolworth Wedding"
50th birthday of the American Woolworth
Price quiz - dateline 1929