Transformation is in our DNA

For over 100 years, we’ve been there for families. As the way families shop has changed, so have we. From catalogues, to bricks, to clicks, to mobile.

Here are some of biggest milestones. 

  • 1860s: Kay & Co, our oldest catalogue brand, was founded.
  • 1930s: Littlewoods Home Shopping was launched by the Moores family in Liverpool.
  • 1980: Our first phone order was taken.
  • 1985: We launched Shop Direct Ireland.
  • 1990: We took our first online order.
  • 2003: Great Universal Stores merged with Littlewoods to form one retail giant – Shop Direct.
  • 2009: We launched Very.co.uk.
  • 2015: We said goodbye to catalogues and became 100% digital.
  • 2017: Very's mobile app hit 1m downloads.
  • 2018: Very Assistant, our AI-powered customer service chatbot, went live.
  • 2020: Shop Direct rebranded as The Very Group.
  • 2020: Our state-of-the-art fulfilment centre, Skygate, opened its doors.
  • 2022: Littlewoods Ireland rebranded to Very in the Republic of Ireland.
  • 2024: We launched VeryGPT, a generative AI tool for our teammates.