Whiteaway Laidlaw

Whiteaway Laidlaw was a British department store chain which operated mainly in Asia, including India, Ceylon, Burma, Singapore, Malaysia and China. It was founded in 1882 and continued to operate until the 1960s.

History
Whiteaway Laidlaw was established by Robert Laidlaw, a British politician who went to India in 1877, and lived there for many years, and Edward Whiteaway, under the name of Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co, and commenced business in Calcutta in 1882. Described as drapers, outfitters and sellers of general household goods, they opened some of the earliest department stores in Asia, and operated on the basis of cash trading only, earning the nickname "Right-away, Paid-for".

The business soon expanded in India and then across the East, and by 1908 it had 23 branches operating in India, Burma, China, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, and the Federated Malay States. In 1899, the partnership was dissolved when Whiteaway left the business but continued to grow under Laidlaw. Known as the "Selfridges of the East" because of its reputation as an upmarket shopping destination, it continued to cater to mainly Europeans and wealthy anglicised locals.

In 1908, Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Company Limited was formed, acquired the business of Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co, and then went public, filing a prospectus in London inviting applications for 300,000 shares of £1 each. Laidlaw continued as chairman of the company until his death in 1915.

By the 1930s, it had expanded further by opening offices in Argentina and Kenya. After independence in India in 1947 many British colonial officials and military personnel left and branches across the country gradually began to close with the branch in Kolkata closing in 1962. On the Malay peninsula the last branch closed in Singapore in 1962, and in Penang in 1965.