ABSTRACT
Sustained by his new local authority loan stocks activity, Hatry was able to capitalise on an idea introduced to him by his solicitor, Stanley Passmore, who also served as chairman of a small provincial group of department stores.
There were several hundred independent department stores who were facing difficulty. The competition of the groups of multiple stores was growing fiercer, and many stores were struggling to meet the cost of refurbishment after years of neglect during the war. Passmore, and Ronald Gaze, the managing director of his company, proposed that if department stores could be persuaded to group together, they could reduce their costs by buying stock centrally and benefit by jointly advertising extensions to the range of goods they sold. Gaze could identify stores that would be suitable candidates to join a new combine and could lead the management in realising the economies of scale. Hatry’s role was to arrange the finance and persuade the current owners to join.
With Hatry’s persuasiveness, Gaze’s idea worked. Within two years, the new combine, Drapery Trust, had formed a substantial group of department stores and been copied by two other groups (Selfridge’s and United Drapery Stores).
This worried the business that had previously acted as a wholesale supplier for the previously independent department stores: Debenhams. To protect its business, Debenhams made an offer to acquire Drapery Trust which was successfully accomplished in a series of transactions managed by Hatry.
By 1950, the enlarged group had become one of the largest businesses in the country.
