Our History

Our story began in September 1979, when our founder, Bill Adderley decided to take on a stall with his wife, Jean, at Leicester market (pitch number D45). Bill and Jean invested every penny they had in seconds of ready made curtains, M&S seconds and slippers. And within a month they had made a 600% profit!

The first bricks and mortar Dunelm store found its home in Churchgate, Leicester, in 1984.

Bill and Jean’s son, Will, who had grown up with the business, was appointed MD of the company.

After 20 years of running the business from two separate office locations, it was time for us to open our first head office in Syston, Leicestershire, which also included a warehouse.

We purchased a small curtain manufacturing business, Bellbird Ltd, and the Made to Measure manufacturing centre was born.

The fully shoppable website went live, representing a huge leap forward for the business with its own dedicated warehouse below our Radcliffe store.

In 2006, Dunelm was floated on the London Stock Exchange, marking the beginning of a new era.

We also opened our new warehouse at Stoke to manage our growing business.

Dunelm was growing fast, and to accommodate our growth, we built a new head office in Syston.

In July we opened our second warehouse at Stoke.

In November our family grew to include Worldstores and Kiddicare.

Nick Wilkinson and Laura Carr join Dunelm as CEO and CFO.

Our new, state of the art Made to Measure manufacturing centre, photography studio and mock shop open in Birstall.

We launch our Customer First strategy, setting out our purpose 'to help everyone create a home they love'.

We set out to find 1 million new customers, encourage existing customers to shop with us 1 more time per year, and add 1 more item per shop.

Our Home of Homes brand advertising launched, featuring real families in their real homes.