The present Company of Thresher's was originally based on the two companies founded by Frederick Stanley Stowell and Samuel Bennett Burt Thresher.

Thresher's: The company gets its name from Samuel Benett Burt Thresher who, in 1898, founded Thresher & Co, a firm of wine merchants based on a 
chain of eight shops. Four were in Fulham, with one each in Lewisham, Ladywell, Streatham and Putney. F.S. Stowell Ltd: Frederick Stanley Stowell 
opened his first wine shop in Ealing in 1878 and by 1893 his name had become a household word in that area. 

In 1917 Thresher's was registered as a limited company, the chain then remained virtually unchanged, only growing locally, until 1938 when 
Samuel Bennett Burt Thresher died in Active Service. He was succeeded by Sydney Follett as managing director and H. A. Bonner as chairman. 
A period of rapid expansion began. Capital had increased from £30,000 in 1928 to £250,000 ten years later. The number of branches had reached 
27 in 1934 and, by 1938, helped by the acquisition of the 17 shops of Watson Son & Co in 1937, had risen to 63. In 1957 Thresher's was taken 
over by Flowers Breweries of Luton which, in turn, became a subsidiary of Whitbread & Co in 1962. The Thresher's shops were amalgamated with 
the 140 wine shops of F. S. Stowell, the managed off-licence group acquired by Whitbread in 1920. This took place in 1965 and the combined 
head offices were established at Britten Street in Chelsea. At this time, Thresher's had 265 shops in London and the South East. 
This Whitbread amalgamation was made up of Findlater Prentis, Arnold Perrett, Collards Higgs, Smeeds, Wine Cellars, Mackies and Agnews Liquorworld.
It was not until 1972-73 that the actual shop facias were all changed to Thresher's. By 1979 there were more than 450 branches of Thresher's.

In May 1977 Head Office moved to the Great North Road, Hatfield, Herts and in September 1982 to Sefton House, Church Road, Welwyn Garden City, 
Herts, at which time there were about 450 branches spread over the greater part of England and Wales.

Thresher Group is the company that now brings us Thresher's, The Local, Wine Rack and Haddows (in Scotland). Together they currently own 
around 2000 shops and employ over 12,000 people across the country. In fact more than half the UK's population live within 10 minutes walk 
from one of the stores.

The above is extracted from a document compiled by researcher Charlie cook, October 2007.