1920s overview - a change at the top leads to faster growth

Fred was a hands-on Manager who liked to get out into the stores to make inspections. Like his cousin, he got involved with suppliers and reviewed contractual matters personally. Board Minutes show that his attendance rate at meetings was second-to-none. But he was also cautious and risk-averse.

The success of the business brought big financial rewards and plenty of society status too. To the British media Fred was "Mr Woolworth". Indeed his daughter Pauline married at St Paul's Cathedral and the wedding was captured on one of British Pathé's first cinema newsreels.

But success came at a price to Fred's health. In the summer of 1922 he suffered a stroke on a trip home to the USA to visit his sick mother. Although he returned to Britain in the Autumn, for the first time in fifteen years he wasn't well enough to attend Board Meetings. He rallied briefly in December, chairing the firm's post-Christmas review, before suffering a fatal stroke on 27 January 1923. The stores were instructed to close. Most of the staff knew their MD personally and were so shocked that they needed time to absorb the news.

To everyone's relief the American parent company picked an insider to be Fred's successor. William Stephenson was a popular choice. He was the sole British member of the founding team. The Yorkshireman had made a name for himself both for his kindly manner and his sharp commerciality and instinct. Stores knew him as both friendly and demanding and considered him firm but fair. Buyers and fellow Directors respected Stephenson and understood exactly why the Founder had sought him out to join the team.

Stephenson had privately harboured concerns that his boss had become too conservative as the company grew. As the formula had taken hold it had generated such large profits that Fred Woolworth had been unwilling to make changes to the ranges or the store environment. The new MD believed that the firm would have to evolve to stay on top, and would need to take risks to achieve its full potential. Under his leadership the pace of openings accelerated rapidly and company profits rocketed. By the time of his retirement after the Second World War, the chain had expanded to 770 stores and had become Britain's most successful retailer, with shares riding high on the stock market. He told well-wishers at his retirement party that he had been lucky. Fred Woolworth had provided a solid foundation to build on.

The key changes that Stephenson introduced in the 1920s were:

- a switch to open freehold rather than rented stores
- larger premises for the original branches
- 336 new stores, compared to 97 in the 1910s
- a fashionable new headquarters in Mayfair, London
- new ranges, including gramophone records

During the same decade two new Woolworth companies opened their doors:

- in 1924 a canny group of Australian entrepreneurs launched a copycat company
- in 1927 F.W. Woolworth Co USA opened a subsidiary in Weimar Germany

Both still trade today.

The Canadian Company made no mention of their American parentage but were proud of their British cousins in the 1920s.