Thresher was the largest specialist drinks retailer in the UK with a total of 1,600 stores.

This seems an appropriate moment to take a look at the history of this old-established business. The 
company takes 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 Lewisham, Ladywell, 
Streatham and Putney taking one each.

The price list for that year shows proprietary brand whisky at 3/6 (17.5p) a bottle, gin 1/6 (7.5p) 
and a bottle of Macon a mere 1/3 (6p).
From the very start there was a connection with Whitbread. Among the range of bottled beers sold 
were Whit-bread's Family Ale, India Pale Ale, Cooper and Stout, all at either 2/4 or 2/6 (12p) per 
dozen imperial pints.

In 1917 Thresher's was registered as a limited company, but the extent of the chain remained unchanged 
until 1938 when S. B. B. Thresher retired. He was succeeded by Sydney Follett as managing director and 
H. A. Bonner as chairman. A period of rapid expansion began. Capital increased from £30,000 in 1928 to 
£250,000 ten years later. The number of branches 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.

Thresher's head office, previously at 4 Thames House, Queen Street Place, in the City of London, moved 
in 1938 to new premises at Burlington Lodge. Rigauit Road, Fulham. Here took place the storing, bottling 
and despatching, of the large stocks of wine being sold through the branches, and to an increasing number 
of retailers. The boardroom at the new offices was particularly handsome, and the door, the work of 
Grinling Gibbons, was featured on the cover of Thresher price lists for a number of years. During the war 
the number of branches reduced to about 60, partly because of the bombing and partly be-
called up. Rationing of spirits was soon in force.

In 1949 it was agreed that at branches which were required to open for seven days, the manager's wife 
would be paid 5/- (25p) to open the branch on the manager's day off. Prices meanwhile continued to rise. 
In the special 1953 Coronation price list whisky is 35/- (£1.75) a bottle, ein 31/- (£1.55), and 
Macon 8/6 (42.5p) a bottle. Whitbread's Pale Ale and Forest Brown were 1/6 (7.5p) a pint, Mackeson and 
Double Brown Ale 2/2 (lip), the latter an increase of almost 12-fold on 1898.

In 1957 Thresher's was taken over by Flowers Breweries of Luton which, in turn, became a subsidiary of 
Whitbread & Co in 1962. Whitbread archivist NICK REDMAN traces the development of Thresher, the UK's 
largest specialist drink retailer.

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. Stowells, reorganised as Stowells of Chelsea in 1968, concentrated solely on 
wholesale supplies to the free trade and to all Whitbread outlets, leaving Thresher's, which by this time 
had 265 shops in London and the South East, responsible for retail sales.
Whitbread also owned another 500 wine shops and off-licences in other parts of the country, some bought 
outright, others coming with the many brewery companies acquired in the 1960s. Among their names were 
Findlater Prentis. Arnold Perrett, Collards Higgs. Smeeds, Wine Cellars, Mack-ies and Agnews Liquorworld. 
It was not until 1972-73 that the actual shop facias were chanced to Thresher's.

By 1979 there were more than 450 branches, and that year a major redesign exercise, which included 
restyling the business Thresher rather than Thresher's, began to transform all the shops. Thresher's 
moved from Chelsea in 1977 joining Stowells at Hatfield before moving again in 1982 to Welwyn Garden City.

In 1990 many Thresher staff were relocated to Huyton, Liverpool, previously the headquarters of 
T. F. Ashe & Nephew acquired in 1984. This business, first established in 1845, operated 325 off-licences 
in the North West, Yorkshire and the Midlands. Its acquisition gave Thresher national coverage. 
To co-ordinate the activities of Ashe & Nephew and Thresher a new company called Whitbread Off-Licences 
was set up. The acquisition of Walsall-based Whittall's 72 shops took Whit-bread's off-licence total to 777.

In 1985 it was decided that all these off-licences would trade under the Thresher name, with the other trading 
names to be phased out over two years. The change gave a new impetus to the company. By 1986 business had grown 
20 per cent over the previous year. Expansion continued. The acquisition of Cullen in 1985, Bridge Wines in 1987, 
Gough Brothers and Julian Flook in 1988 added another 140 outlets. Meanwhile, in December 1986, the first 
Esprit du Vin opened in London, and a new concept, Wine Rack, was launched in 1989. Wine Rack, of which there 
are now around 80, won the National High Street Chain Of The Year award in the 1991 International Wine Challenge.
The other formats now used for Thresher outlets are Thresher Wine Stores. Drink Stores from Thresher and Food and 
Drink Stores from Thresher. Most of the Peter Dominic shops will be gradually merged into these trading styles, 
although the 78-strong Bottoms-Up chain will be retained. The business that still bears his name has certainly 
come a long way since Samuel Thresher first began trad-incback in 1898.

A letter writer describes the threshers as.... 

The Company of Thresher was originally based on the two companies founded by Frederick Stanley Stowell and 
Samuel Bennett Burt Thresher. 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.
The arrival of the founders son H. J. Stowell in 1899 marked the beginning of the firm's real success culminating 
in it becoming a Limited Company (F.S. Stowell) controlling seven branches by 1918. In 1921 Whitbread and Stowells 
came together and in 1927 the cellars and Head Office were moved from Ealing to Britten Steet, Chelsea in what 
had previously been the Red Anchor Brewery.
Stowells took its number of branches to 60 by 1939 and to 130 by 1956. Thresher - Samuel Bennet Burt Thresher 
founded the firm of Wine Merchants in the west of London in 1897.  By 1917 when a Limited Company was formed 
he controlled eight shops; by 1937 the number of branches had increased to 55 and in 1938 the Head Office moved 
to Fulham where it remained until 1965.  In 1957 Threshers were taken over by Flowers Breweries and remained 
under their control until 1962 by which time the number of branches had risen to above 130.

In 1962 Flowers Breweries became part of the Whitbread Brewery Group and in 1965 the retail branches of both 
Stowells and Threshers came under the management of Thresher, the Head Office being established at Britten Street, 
Chelsea, Over the next eight years further expansion of the Whitbread Wine and Spirit Retail Estate took place 
although it was not until 1972-73 that the actual shop fascias were all changed to Thresher.

Since 1965 branches of other multiple Wine Merchants including Arnold Perrett of Gloucester, Collards of Great Yarmouth, 
Findlater Prentis of Maidstone, Higgs of Reading, Smeeds of London and Portsmouth, Wine Cellars of Twickenham, Mackies 
of Birkenhead and Agnews Liquourworld became part of Thresher.

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 AGO branches spread over the greater part of 
England and Wales.

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