Our history

Whitakers of Shipley

“ a potted history of a diverse & true family business, spanning 60 years & 3 generations “

November 1964, Dennis & Keith Whitaker established Whitakers of Shipley.  There is no family connection.  It is a coincidence that they share the same surname. Whitakers of Shipley exclusively undertakes maintenance work on cleaning and laundry appliances.

January 1972, The initial business partnership is dissolved amicably & Dennis Whitaker became a sole trader running Whitakers of Shipley. 

July 1986, 14 years later Richard Whitaker joined the business ( Dennis’ son ) By now Whitakers of Shipley is offering maintenance on a much greater range of kitchen appliances and the business is selling new Hoover, KitchenAid & AEG kitchen appliances

November 1999, Whitakers of Shipley became a member of CIH Euronics.  Euronics is a buying union which enables small scale electrical appliance retailers to combine their buying power and compete with much larger organisations.  We had significantly increased our sales of major appliances by 1999,  but large multiple stores and the advent of internet retail were making it difficult to compete.  Joining a buying union was the answer.

December 2003, Whitakers of Shipley is no longer small scale. Membership of Euronics had transformed the business and enabled a much greater range of products to be offered to our customers.  Plans were in place to link 18 & 16 Commercial Street and create a much bigger shop with much more display space.

September 2004, Whitakers of Shipley opened its fully renovated and expanded shop premises in Shipley. The shop now had 3 x the product display space.

December 2008, Mariusz Wojtkowiak joined Whitakers of Shipley.  Mariusz used to work in the Polish military and relocated to the UK in 2007.  His aptitude for diagnosing mechanical faults and effecting repairs has made him an important member of our team here.  Richard & Mariusz are now married and co-owners of Whitakers of Shipley.

February 2014, Luke Whitaker ( Richard’s nephew )  joined Whitakers of Shipley.  Luke had no prior experience of electrical appliance retail, but immediately adapted.  Luke’s great customer service skills, product knowledge and interest in all things I.T. has also made him an important member of our team.

February 2020, Covid presented and Whitakers of Shipley was forced to close its shop doors and trade via phone and email.  Supply chains broke and many of our customers began to have to wait weeks and weeks for products, which normally have been available immediately. By the end of 2020 we had acquired warehousing space 3 x our precovid capacity.  We could now buy in much greater levels of stock ( when it became available ) and make it available to our customers much more quickly.

September 2022, The whole shop front is updated with an interactive media screen, now presenting offers & updates to our customers.

October 2024, The launch of our brand new catalogue website.  Showcasing one of the largest ranges of premium kitchen appliances.  Furthermore this new website is very content rich and offers a wealth of information and imagery to assist our customers when making purchase decisions.