dabs.com

dabs.com was an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. It was one of the UK's largest internet retailers of IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a subsidiary of BT Group.[1]

dabs.com
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1987 (1987) (offline as Dabs Press)
1990 (1990) (offline as Dabs Direct and eventually online as Dabs.com)
HeadquartersBolton, England, UK
Area served
United Kingdom
Republic of Ireland
Key people
Helen Slinger (CEO)
RevenueIncrease £200m (2008)
Number of employees
200
ParentBT Group
Websitewww.dabs.com
www.dabs.ie

History

As an independent company

Originally Dabs Press, from 1987 to 1990, and Dabs Direct, it primarily sold its products via advertisements in IT related magazines.[2] dabs.com was founded in Bolton by David Atherton and Bruce Smith[3] in 1987;[2] Dabs is an acronym of the initials of the founders' names. It subsequently grew to employ more than 200 people, with annual revenue of £200m from 5000 transactions daily.

Dabs.com was a shirt sponsor of Fulham FC for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons.[4]

BT takeover

In April 2006, it was announced that BT Group had purchased dabs.com for an estimated £30m and that the business would become a wholly owned subsidiary of BT.[1]

The company's operations in France were subsequently closed at the end of May 2006.[5]

Closure

In April 2016 the dabs.com brand was phased out in favour of the BT Shop brand (for consumers) and BT Business Direct (for business customers).[6][7] This included the closure of the dabs.ie website for the Republic of Ireland and the end of consumer-oriented sales there on the same date.[8]

References
  1. "BT buys online retailer dabs.com". BBC News. 28 April 2006.
  2. "David Atherton at E-consultancy". Archived from the original on 16 September 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2008.
  3. "About Dabs: Our history and growth". Archived from the original on 17 July 2010.
  4. "Fulham dabs new sponsor". 12 May 2003. Archived from the original on 9 January 2012. Fulham Football Club today announced a major new two-year sponsorship deal with [..] dabs.com. As the Official Men's Team Sponsor for the 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons, the dabs.com logo will [appear] from the start of the new season.
  5. "Sorry! dabs France has closed". Archived from the original on 11 November 2008. On 31st May 2006 the dabs.com French website (dabs.fr) was closed and is no longer able to accept new orders.
  6. "BT to bin Dabs.com brand". www.theinquirer.net. 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016. BT has celebrated the 10th anniversary of its 2006 acquisition of [dabs.com] by binning it and shifting its remaining customers to BT-branded websites [..] The death of Dabs.com will be completed by 11 April{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. "dabs.com Customer | BT Shop". Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. from 11th April 2016, we'll be retiring the dabs.com brand and moving forward with just our BT Shop brand for consumer customers. For business customers, we'd encourage you to shop online at BT Business Direct
  8. "Information for Dabs customers in the Republic of Ireland". Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. With effect from 11th April 2016, we'll also be retiring the dabs.ie brand [..] For consumer customers in the Republic of Ireland, this means you won't be able to place new orders with us. [..] We hope [business customers will] consider buying online at our newly rebranded BT Business Direct Ireland
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