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Suters was a Slough and Uxbridge based operator of department stores in the south of England trading under the Suter family name for over fifty years until the business was sold to Owen Owen in 1978.

Founders and History
Suters Ltd had its original routes in East Retford in Nottinghamshire when George Suter opened a felt hat manufactory in the mid 1700s. The family remained in manufacturing for the next hundred years and members of the family moved to Ledbury in Herefordshire. There in 1864 George Allison Suter opened up a drapery shop at 5 High Street. His son George William Suter took over the shop in 1895, trading as G.W. Suter Draper. He ran this business till during the second world war he decided to let the business and move to Friar Barnet, London N11 where he established another “Suter” drapery business.

In 1920 the New Southgate Friar Barnet business was sold and together with his second eldest son Clarence they took over W. Andrews and Sons in High Street, Slough calling it Suter & Son. By 1924 they were looking to expand and took over Garrick & Coles on the corner of High Street and Windsor Street in Uxbridge. George William’s other three sons, Arthur, Frank and John joined the business and it became known as Suters Ltd trading as “Suters”.

Over forty years further acquisitions of businesses were made in Slough and Uxbridge to increase the sizes of the stores and the Uxbridge store was rebuilt before the outbreak of the second world war. It was a very modern building in the heart of the town centre, nearly adjoing the London Underground station. After the end of the war other business were acquired in Windsor and Ruislip and Ashford in Middlesex. These were only small units and by the early 1960s they were all disposed of so the company could concentrate on improvements and expansion of the Slough and Uxbridge branches.

In 1962 a new store of 75,000 square feet store was opened in Slough built on the site of the earlier High Street premises and land behind, a lot of which today is part of the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre. The new Slough store had the first escalators in the area, a private customers car park at the rear and by that time there were several members of the next generation of the Suter family employed in the business.

Sale to Owen Owen
By 1978 the land at the rear of the Slough store had been compulsory purchased by the local Council to develop the Queensmere shopping centre, who in turn wanted to lease land back to the Suters at a high rent to expand the Slough site. A great deal of updating had also taken place at the Uxbridge store. The Suter family accepted an offer from Owen Owen Department Store group of Liverpool. The Suter family left the business and the 340 Suters staff were taken on by Owen Owen.