Bish-Jones believed that the Woolworths formula needed a radical overhaul. The traditional Home ranges - DIY, Electricals, Gardening, Kitchen and Haberdashery - were, he felt, past their sell-by date, and the range of sweets and confectionery was over-extended. His formula was to boost the ranges of Children's Clothing and Toys in-store, capitalising on the strength of the firm's Ladybird and Chad Valley ranges, and promote these departments to the front of the shop, trimming back on the other ranges to make room. Also, to leverage the Group's strong market-position in music and video, he planned to grow the entertainment retail and wholesale operations at Woolworths, MVC and Entertainment UK Ltd.

Buyers were challenged to think differently, taking decisions more quickly and getting better products on the shelves in a shorter time, and concentrating their efforts on a new target customer - 'Debbie', a mum with small children at home - instead of the firm's traditional 'everyday for everyone' approach to buying. He also wanted higher product margins (profit per item) and to add higher-priced products at the upper end of the range.

In the exchange he promised new-look stores with an improved shopping environment and to make the chain famous again as 'Debbie's store'.

The new look was revealed at Bish-Jones's local store in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire in the autumn of 2002 and, a few weeks later, at Kettering, Northamptonshire (illustrated, left) and the slightly smaller store at Market Harborough in Leicestershire.

The shopping environment had been transformed, with improved lighting, a red walkway through the centre of the store and enhanced fixtures to display hanging garments and shoes to advantage.

There were also new ranges - which were added progressively as products came through - including a range of kids fashion accessories under the banner 'Girls, Girls, Girls', and dressing-up outfits, principally for small girls and progressively adding character brands for boys and adults as well. Dress-up proved especially popular from the outset.

City reaction to the new look was very positive, and while the sales growth was modest, the overall margin contribution of the stores rose signficantly as a result of the changed mix of products sold. The final test before roll-out was to apply a refined version to the large 18,000 square foot store at Kingston-upon-Thames in South West London in the Autumn of 2003. Kingston (illustrated below) was transformed, with sales rocketing and very strong customer feedback, confirming the decision to roll-out. See the opening day video.

Between the Spring of 2004 and the Autumn of 2006 almost two hundred of the larger Woolworths stores got the Kids and Celebrations new look. The refurbishment included improvements to the lighting, a new floor and new, much more adaptable fixtures that could accommodate both larger/longer garments for older children and baby sizes with front-on displays, or side-on displays of clearance products.

The picture shows the store in Rye Lane, Peckham, South East London, which was the hundredth to be converted. The chain traded from Rye Lane from 1912 - when Frank Woolworth himself performed the opening, until the demise of the store-based business in January 2009.

Despite good performance from the clothing and toys ranges in the stores, the growth in sales was not sufficient to cover those lost on the ranges that were removed from the stores. And meanwhile 'Debbie' was spoilt for choice, espoused not just by Woolies but by Adams, Mothercare, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's.

Woolworths' 500 smaller, local High Street stores, got comparatively little attention during the Bish-Jones years. His vision for these branches, called 'Elastic Walls', was to make the full superstore range available to order via a big book catalogue ('The Big Red Book'), or touch-screen ordering on a kiosk or at the till - a business model ill-suited to clothing.

The concept was tested at the store in Kingswood, Bristol - with customers able to order products from the nearby Big W store at Imperial Park. The new look explained the range available and made the branch look bright and fresh, but generated surprisingly few orders from the extended range. Most customers opted to buy those items that they could take home with them.

Despite this, the firm invested heavily to develop the Big Red Book catalogue and a large new central warehouse to handle and fulfil customers' orders. Company bosses opted to focus the catalogue on toys and electrical items, restricting the clothing offer to a few dress-up clothes and baby layette gift packs.

The Kingswood look was extended to a handful of stores before the initiative was canned. The remaining 500 stores started to deteriorate, with maintenance spending pared to the bone, making it hard to show the range to advantage,

New management, appointed in Summer 2008, hoped to tackle this - focusing the majority of their energy on the small stores, which continued to generate the lion's share of profits, despite their shortcomings, but this was not to be. The firm's bankers, it seemed did not agree and declined to provide additional short-term funding, forcing the store chain into Administration, and ultimately closure.

In parallel at headquarters Woolworths appointed a Brand Manager to maximise the potential of their investment in the Ladybird and Chad Valley names. Working on a very tight budget this soon started to prove the potential. A chain of elegant franchised Ladybird shops opened in the Republic of Ireland, followed by further licensors in Malaysia, China and the Middle East.

Perhaps one day we will see Ladybird shops operating as a franchise in the British High Street. Who knows? Perhaps the Irish will take up the gap left by the closure of the High Street stores, or perhaps, as some pundits predict, we will all learn to shop for clothes in virtual reality on the worldwide web. For now, if you're looking for good value, well-made Ladybird clothes, just head to woolworths.co.uk and see the giant strides that Shop Direct has made in taking the brand forward into a new era.

The Original Virtual Museum would like to thank Professor David Jenkins and Dr Kaori O'Connor of the Pasold Research Foundation for their encouragement in preparing this feature.