of pools agents and printing company (founded in 1928) to establish itself as a catalogue retailer from 1932 onwards. The success of the catalogue shopping business led to the opening of a Littlewoods high street department store in Blackpool in 1937. In October 2001, Littlewoods became the owner of Swan electronics. In November 2002, the Moores family sold Littlewoods to the Barclay brothers for £750 million. Littlewoods also owned the Index chain of stores. The home shopping/catalogues business of Argos and Homebase owner, GUS plc, ARG Equation (which included Great Universal, Kays, Choice and Marshall Ward) was de-merged and bought by the Barclay brothers in 2003, where it became Shop Direct. Merger: Littlewoods Shop Direct Group In March 2005, following a 20-year history in which it had never made a profit, it was announced that part of the Index chain of catalogue shops was to be sold to Argos, and the remainder was to be closed. In July 2005, Associated British Foods purchased the 120-branch Littlewoods retail chain on behalf of its retail subsidiary Primark for £409 million. Some of the stores were converted into branches of Primark, and the remainder were sold on to other retailers. The Littlewoods name disappeared from the British high street in March 2006. Following these disposals, and clearance from the Competition Commission, the Littlewoods home shopping business was formally merged with that of Shop Direct (the former GUS plc home shopping business) in October 2005, to form the United Kingdom's largest home shopping business. The merger was in reality effected in early 2004 when work started on a business optimisation programme, consolidating various business functions. Following the merger, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group moved its headquarters from Manchester city centre to Skyways House in Speke, south Liverpool. The then newly appointed Chief Executive Mark Newton-Jones said the merger had "been the biggest challenge of all – taking two companies that [had] been arch rivals for the best part of 100 years and bringing them together. Not just from an operational point of view, but also two different business cultures". Post-merger In May 2008, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group announced it would change its corporate brand name to Shop Direct Group, to reflect the multi-branded nature of the business. In July 2008, Shop Direct completed its purchase of the Empire Stores brand name and customer base from mail order competitor Redcats. In May 2008, Home Delivery Network,