HABITAT - France - Europe

Habitat is a retailer of household furnishings in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, and has franchised outlets in other countries. Founded in 1964 by Terence Conran, it was sold by the IKANO Group, owned by the Kamprad family, in December 2009 to Hilco, a restructuring specialist.
Terence Conran founded the company in London in 1964, opening his own store to market his Summa range of furniture.The first Habitat store was opened in Fulham Road in Chelsea by Conran, his then wife Caroline and the model Pagan Taylor.This store became the Habitat template, with its quarry tiled floor, whitewashed brick walls, white-painted wooden-slatted ceilings and spotlights creating a feeling of space and focusing attention on the product.
In 1981, the company's shares were floated on the London Stock Exchange and in 1982 merged with Mothercare Group to form Habitat Mothercare Group PLC. The now-listed company bought the furniture retailer Heal's and the Richard Shops fashion chain in 1983. In 1986, the company merged with British Home Stores to form Storehouse plc In 1992 Habitat was purchased from Storehouse by IKANO. In October 2009, following several years of trading losses, the Kamprad family, who own IKANO, put the company up for sale, and it was sold to Hilco, a restructuring specialist, in December 2009 with the Kamprad family writing off the debts of the company and providing €50 million (£45 million) of working capital while Hilco paid about €15m.
In October 2009, Habitat employed 1,574 people and operated in 71 stores: 35 in the UK, 26 in France, five in Spain and five in Germany. The company used to have stores in Galway and Dublin in the Republic of Ireland but these were closed down in 2008. In addition, the company operates stores or concessions in Belgium, Iceland, Indonesia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Thailand, Turkey and Scandinavia. The company also operates sourcing offices in Italy, Poland, Slovenia and China.
http://www.habitat.fr/