Maple & Co was the largest furniture retailer in the world.
John Maple establishes the business
John Maple (1815 – 1900) was born in Greenhurst, Sussex, the son of a small farmer. He served an apprenticeship at a general store.
Maple partnered with James Cook to form Maple & Cook, furnishers and drapers of Tottenham Court Road, London, with a capital of £500 in 1840.
Cook left the firm by mutual consent in 1847, and the business traded as John Maple & Co.
Maple managed the business on a low-margin principal. He claimed to have the largest furniture showroom in the world by 1850.
John Blundell Maple grows the business
John Blundell Maple (1845 – 1903) entered his father’s business from 1861. He was made a partner in 1867.
Hundreds of salesmen were employed at Tottenham Court Road by 1874.
John Blundell Maple had taken control of the business by 1880. A dapper, yet modest, kindly and genial man, the subsequent growth of the business was mainly to his credit. Maple had “unbounded energy, enterprise and commercial genius” according to the Leeds Mercury. An obituary would later describe his “great shrewdness and energy, and capacity for acquiring a complete mastery of all the details of the business”.
At J B Maple’s initiative, the firm furnished many of the great hotels and houses throughout the British Empire and Europe. One furnishing bill for a great London hotel amounted to £100,000.
Maple & Co was the largest furniture retailer in the world by 1885.
The Tottenham Court Road premises covered four acres by 1888. Maple & Co directly employed 2,051 people.
In order to meet demand, the vast majority of production was subcontracted. John Crossley & Sons, a carpet manufacturer, represented one of the largest suppliers.
Maple & Co furnished all the Courts of Europe. Most members of the British Royal Family had been supplied, including Queen Victoria.
Maple & Co becomes a limited liability company
Maple & Co was converted into a limited liability company with a capital of £2 million in 1891.
J B Maple paid for the reconstruction of University College Hospital at a cost of £120,000 in 1896.
John Maple died with an estate valued at £892,503 in 1900.
3,000 people were employed at the Tottenham Court Road premises by 1903. The Daily Mail commented that Maple goods furnished “half the palaces of Europe, and the bulk of the best modern mansions in Great Britain”.
John Blundell Maple died in 1903. He ranked as one of the richest British businessmen of his era, and his estate was valued at £2.2 million. Maple had been a generous philanthropist throughout his life. Clare Henry Regnart (1842 – 1932) became company president.
An Argentinian subsidiary was established in 1906.
Clare Henry Regnart retired in 1930 and was succeeded as company president by his son, Charles Clare Regnart.
Subsequent owners and demise
Maple & Co, with 20 British stores and five overseas, was acquired by Macowards of Cardiff for £14.4 million in 1972. That year the Tottenham Court Road head office and flagship store was closed for redevelopment. The resulting fiasco saw shares plummet to ten percent of their 1972 value by 1977.
There were 45 British and two French stores in 1977.
Maple & Co was acquired by Waring & Gillow, a furniture retailer, for £9.7 million in 1980.
Waring & Gillow was acquired by Asda, a supermarket chain, in 1989. Maples was subject to a management buyout in 1993.
Maples entered into receivership in 1997, a result of high debts and poor trading. The company targeted the upper mass market, and had 24 stores including nine larger out-of-town sites, and a staff of 340.
The Tottenham Court Road location was acquired by Furniture Village. Eight stores were sold to Allders.