Maplin Electronics is the trading name of an online retailer of electronic goods in the United Kingdom and Ireland launched in 2019, using the brand of the former company Maplin Electronics Ltd., which operated from 1972 to 2018. The original Maplin company operated many retail shops and an extensive mail order service, online and by telephone; in June 2017, there were 217 Maplin stores. On 28 February 2018, Maplin went into administration and all stores permanently ceased trading in June that year. The brand of Maplin was acquired by a new company, Maplin Online Ltd., on 31 May 2019, later renamed Digital First Retail Ltd., still trading as Maplin. The new company sells similar products to Maplin Electronics Ltd, using the Maplin website, branding and trading name. No physical Maplin shops have been opened, and the legal obligations of Maplin Electronics Ltd, such as warranty support, were not assumed. History Founding Maplin Electronic Supplies was established in 1972 as a mail order business by Roger Allen, Sandra Allen and Doug Simmons. The company started in a bedroom at the Allens' home in Rayleigh, Essex, after the two electronics enthusiasts were disappointed by the complexity and poor availability of existing electronic component suppliers. The trio placed an advertisement in an electronics magazine, after printing the company's first twenty eight page catalogue, which would be offered free to callers. Despite a slow start and dwindling profit in the first year, the company began to gain a reputation for first grade electronic components delivered exactly as shown in the catalogue by first class post. First stores The first store opened in Westcliff-on-Sea and the mail order department moved into the rooms above the shop. Sales received a boost when Maplin was invited to take prime advertising space in IPC electronics magazines after the latter received complaints against some of their existing advertisers. A second store opened in Hammersmith by the end of the year. The mail order side of the business had outgrown the space available above the store in Westcliff-on-Sea, and an ex dairy building in Hadleigh was purchased and established as Maplin's first warehouse. Maplin had already started designing electronic kits for hobbyists and musicians, with several synthesiser and organ projects being published in the first magazine, Electronics & Music Maker, and subsequently made available as kits. After the second store opened Electronics – the Maplin Magazine was launched and initially