Bonmarche

Bonmarché is a British womenswear retailer founded in 1982 by Parkash Singh Chima, a Sikh businessman who arrived in the UK in 1950 from Punjab. Starting with a door-to-door clothing business in Ely, Cambridgeshire, Chima expanded by acquiring retail firms Wiltex and Hartley. The first Bonmarché store opened in Doncaster in 1985, growing to become the UK's largest budget fashion retailer selling womenswear in a wide range of sizes. At its peak, the chain had over 380 stores and employed over 4,000 people from its headquarters in Grange Moor, West Yorkshire. After various ownership changes including Peacock Group (2002) and Sun European Partners (2012), Bonmarché has been owned by The Edinburgh Woollen Mill since April 2019.