Preparing for decimalisation "D-Day" on 15 February 1971

For more than five hundred years Great Britain's currency was based around twelves rather than tens. The 'duo-decimal' currency, consisted of pounds, shillings and pence. There were twelve pennies (abbreviated to "D" for Denarii, the Latin name for penny) in a shilling, and twenty shillings in a pound, meaning that there were 240 old pennies in a pound.

Most other countries had currencies centred around tens - dollars and cents in the USA, francs and centimes in France - but Britain and its Empire worked in twelves. The old currency even got three mentions in the fascias of the early stores.

In the 1960s one-by-one Commonwealth countries started to decimalise. By 1965 Rhodesia, Jamaica, New Zealand and Australia had all switched. On 1 March 1966 the British Government announced plans to join the decimal revolution, along with plans for a consultation period with industry. The arrangements were finalised in February 1968. It was announced that Britain would switch to pounds and pence on 15 February 1971. Banks were closed for four days before the switchover.

The decision heralded one of the biggest and most expensive changes that the F.W. Woolworth chain had ever seen. The firm had not anticipated decimalisation and, unlike other retailers, had not mitigated its impact by converting its stores to self-service during the 1960s.

When the Government announced the switch, 1,000 out of 1,100 Woolworth stores still had tills at every counter. The chain operated a remarkable 20,000 cash registers and had 60,000 staff. The provisional project plan showed that it would cost an average of £200 to convert each till and that each staff member would need at least three hours of training. This prompted the Board to consider alternatives. They concluded that every store needed to convert to self-service and that they should try to complete as many as possible before 'D' Day.

Self-service would tackle the number of registers and reduce the number of till operators, but left a problem with product pricing. More than 20,000 stamping machines had to be replaced. The chain chose a model which could show both the old and new prices, and dual-priced every item from August 1970. Tickets and signs also showed dual prices for twelve months, up to until August 1971.

In the final reckoning the decimalisation cost £5 million, taking into account the conversion of the cash registers, staff training and the establishment of a basic self-service operation in the stores.

At the time the chain turned over £320m and generated annual profits of £18m. After paying dividends of £13m, this left only £5m of discretionary capital expenditure each year. For four years from 1969 to 1973 virtually all other investment was placed on hold. The Board was also forced to face up to a longstanding issue and tackle their loss-making stores.

A root and branch review revealed that twenty-five stores were trading at a loss. Generally these were the original shops in large towns and cities that had been superceded by a more recent outlet closer to the main shopping area. They had been kept open for old time's sake, in support of a company adage that "only Mr Hitler had ever closed a British Woolworth store".

Executives concluded that it would be wrong to pour good money after bad into these stores, as additional capital expenditure would accentuate the losses. Instead they decided to sacrifice them, selling the freeholds to top up the reserves. A special effort was made to find alternative work for all those employees who wanted to transfer to another branch nearby.

By 'D' Day more than half of the 1,075 stores had converted to self-service. The number of cash registers in the remaining personal service stores was reduced to minimise the cost of decimalisation work. After the big day the pace of conversion was reduced, with 100 stores completed each year from 1971 to 1975. Overall the move to self-service took twenty years, starting in Chobham, Surrey in 1956 and finishing in Stone, Staffordshire in 1975.

Decimalisation consumed much of Woolworth's investment capital during the first half of the 1970s. The situation was compounded by a major fire at the firm's national Distribution Centre in Castleton, Rochdale. Profits started to slip as the chain fell behind competitors who had shown more foresight. During the same period the firm's debt burden rose rapidly. Sales and profits were no longer sufficient to fund major projects. Borrowing was required. New initiatives would be required to restore sales volumes and set the chain back on track.

But, despite the pain, the decimalisation itself was delivered on time in a highly professional project which received plaudits from observers. The crowning glory was a front page story the morning after 'D' Day in the respected London Times Newspaper of 16 February 1971. It showed Lord Fiske, the Chairman of the government-backed Decimal Currency Board, making the first decimal purchase in the Woolworh Store in The Strand, WC2. He was accompanied by Woolworth Administration Director Mr. J.C. Williams and Project Manager Peter Nicholls, who had already made a name for himself opening the first Woolworths in Jamaica. Lord Fiske commented "the girls certainly knew what they were doing"!