The company was established by Fred Dawes, as a chain of television and radio rental shops, in the 1950s. The business was initially named Fred Dawes. All ninety of the Fred Dawes High Street stores became electrical retailers instead and, in 1971, Thorn acquired an Essex and Hertfordshire group of shops called Sidney Rumbelow's, and Fred Dawes stores were renamed Rumbelows. Several other regional chains were bought around this time, including two chains that were already large and popular in North West England, NEMS and Strothers. As with Fred Dawes, these stores too were renamed Rumbelows. Combining previously unrelated chains occasionally created competing Rumbelows stores within yards of each other. Centralised control was established from the Nantwich, Cheshire, headquarters, which suffered as much as it benefited from being an early adopter of computerised accounting. Several of the former Strothers and NEMS stores also sold records, musical instruments and hi fi equipment. The Rumbelows store in Whitechapel, Liverpool had been the heart of the NEMS Enterprises empire during the 1960s, when NEMS was owned by the manager of the Beatles, Brian Epstein.
Demise
In 1989, the business was sold to Radio Rentals, and all the rental accounts were transferred to Radio Rentals. Thorn EMI transferred all of Rumbelows' rental accounts to their Radio Rentals chain, bolstering its market position. With its core business removed, Rumbelows sought a new identity as a more conventional retailer, even adding computers to the product mix. In 1992, Thorn converted some of the remaining Rumbelows shops into DER, Multibroadcast or Radio Rentals branches. Few observers were surprised by the reduction in profitability that resulted from this unconventional business tactic, and fewer still were surprised when Thorn closed the remaining 285 Rumbelows shops in February 1995. Rumbelows had been losing £12 million a year, and had never made a profit in its twenty four years of existence. Some stores were sold to the German retail chain of PCs, Escom. In July 1996, Escom itself subsequently folded, following financial difficulties. In the 1980s, Martin Dawes, Fred's son, would carry on the family name in the electrical and electronic retailing sector, with his mobile phone business, which he sold to Cellnet in March 1999 for £130 million.
