H. Samuel

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H. Samuel

H. Samuel on the junction of Briggate and Commercial Street in Leeds
Type	Private limited company
Industry	Retail
Founded	(Liverpool, England) 1862
Founder	Harriet Samuel
Headquarters	Imperial Place 3, Maxwell Road, Borehamwood, WD6 1JN
Products	Jewellery
Owner	Signet Jewelers
Number of employees	17,200 (2008) (Signet Group Results)
Website	hsamuel.co.uk

H. Samuel is a mass-market jewellery chain, operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is part of the Signet Group of jewellery retailers.

History[]

The large clock outside H Samuel's premises in Norwich

In 1862, Harriet Samuel (née Wolf) took over her father-in-law Moses Samuel's clock-making and silversmith business in Liverpool. Harriet moved the business to Manchester's Market Street and ran the mail-order side.^{[citation needed]} Her son developed the retail business, and opened the first H. Samuel retail store in Preston in 1890, closely followed by branches in Rochdale and throughout Lancashire.^{[citation needed]} To accommodate the growing business, the company moved to larger headquarters in Birmingham in 1912.^{[citation needed]}

H. Samuel, Oxford Street, London, 2016

After the Second World War, Harriet's grandsons, Gilbert Edgar and Robert Edgar, took over as chairman and vice chairman. In 1948, the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange.^{[citation needed]} Gilbert was appointed a CBE for political and public services, was elected a Sheriff of the City of London, and was elected Master of the Clockmakers' Company.^{[citation needed]} Meanwhile, the number of H. Samuel stores rose to over two hundred nationwide.^{[citation needed]}

After the brothers' deaths in the late 1970s, Robert's son took over as chairman. In 1984 he led an acquisition of the , which doubled the company's presence in the UK.^{[citation needed]}

H. Samuel was bought by Ratner's Jewellers and some H. Samuel stores were formerly branches of Ratner's, which were re-branded following that brand's spectacular fall from grace in 1992.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, the company employed 17,200 people.^{[citation needed]} There are 303 stores as of 16 February 2015,^{[citation needed]}.

Acquired by Signet[]

The chain is now part of the Signet Group, which also owns the Ernest Jones and Leslie Davis jewellery stores in the UK. The Signet Group, listed on the London and New York stock exchanges, owns Sterling – the largest specialty jewellery retailer in the United States – which operates the Kay and Jared national brands, and a further ten regional brands.

In 2005 the chain launched its first e-commerce site.^{[citation needed]}

See also[]

• Harriet Samuel

External links[]

• Official website
• Media related to H. Samuel at Wikimedia Commons