Dabs.com
Former British e-commerce retailer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
dabs.com was an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom which was one of the country's largest online retailers of IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a subsidiary of BT Group.[1]
1990 (offline as Dabs Direct and eventually online as Dabs.com)
| |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1987 (offline as Dabs Press) 1990 (offline as Dabs Direct and eventually online as Dabs.com) |
| Headquarters | Bolton, England |
Area served | United Kingdom Republic of Ireland |
Key people | Helen Slinger (CEO) |
| Revenue |  £200m (2008) |
Number of employees | 200 |
| Parent | BT Group |
History
Originally Dabs Press, from 1987 to 1990, then Dabs Direct, the company 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 5,000 transactions daily.
Dabs.com was a shirt sponsor of Fulham F.C. 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 retired and replaced by BT Shop 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]