Freeman, Hardy and Willis

Freeman, Hardy and Willis is a major chain of footwear retailers in the United Kingdom between 1875 and 1996. Since 2020, it operates exclusively online.

Freeman, Hardy and Willis

Industry	Online Retailer
Founded	1875–1996 (Stores) 2020– (Online)
Headquarters	Gloucester, UK , United Kingdom
Number of locations	Online only
Key people	Alfred Freeman
Products	Footwear
Owner	Gardiner Bros & Co Ltd
Website	https://fhwbrands.com/

Freeman Hardy Willis branch in Porthmadog, North Wales, in 1987. This subsequently became Stead & Simpson in 1996 and then Shoezone, which closed in May 2023

History

An old sign in Hitchin Market Square

The shoe retailer was established in 1875 and was named after three employees of the company, one of whom was Alfred Freeman, a Russian shoe maker who resided in St Pancras, London. For many years, there was a branch in nearly every town in the United Kingdom. In 1929 the company was acquired by Sears plc.^[1] Its subsidiary, the Leicester-based British Shoe Corporation, went on to own the Trueform, Curtess, Dolcis, Manfield, Saxone, and Lilley & Skinner brands. The name was also simplified to Freeman Hardy Willis in order to have bolder lettering on shopfronts. During the early 1960s the paper bags used to wrap the shoes were imprinted with the FHW letters and the legend "For Happy Walking".

Sale of company

In the early 1990s the British Shoe Corporation converted approximately half of the 540 Freeman Hardy Willis branches into Hush Puppies shops and sold the remainder to Stephen Hinchliffe, an entrepreneur from Sheffield. After only a year, Hinchliffe's business empire collapsed. He was subsequently jailed after it was found that he bribed bank officials to obtain loans to buy the company.^[2] After providing "Shoes For All The Family" since 1875, Freeman Hardy Willis was no more by 1996. After closure, 44 former FHW branches were sold to Stead & Simpson.

British Shoe Corporation itself closed in 1998.^[3]

In more recent years, the Freeman Hardy & Willis name has reappeared online, now owned by Gardiner Bros & Co (Leathers) Ltd.

References

1. "American Multinationals and Innovation in British Retailing, 1850–1962" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-09-03. Retrieved 2009-02-28.
2. Griffin, Rob (16 February 2001). "Rise and fall of a would-be king of the high street". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
3. Valentine, Matthew (12 February 1998). "British Shoe misses its step". Design Week. Retrieved 9 May 2014.

External links

• Media related to Freeman Hardy Willis at Wikimedia Commons
• Documents and clippings about Freeman, Hardy and Willis in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
• Online store https://fhwbrands.com/