 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1987; 37 years ago (1987) (offline as Dabs Press) 1990; 34 years ago (1990) (offline as Dabs Direct and eventually online as Dabs.com) |
| Headquarters | Bolton, England, UK |
Area served | United Kingdom Republic of Ireland |
Key people | Helen Slinger (CEO) |
| Revenue |  £200m (2008) |
Number of employees | 200 |
| Parent | BT Group |
| Website | www.dabs.com www.dabs.ie |
dabs.com was an e-commerce retailer in the United Kingdom. It was one of the UK's largest internet retailers of IT and technology products. From 2006 until its closure in 2016, it was a subsidiaryofBT Group.[1]
Originally Dabs Press, from 1987 to 1990, and Dabs Direct, it 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 5000 transactions daily.
Dabs.com was a shirt sponsorofFulham FC for the 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons.[4]
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]
In April 2016 the dabs.com brand was phased out in favour of the BT Shop brand (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]
Fulham Football Club today announced a major new two-year sponsorship deal with [..] dabs.com. As the Official Men's Team Sponsor for the 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 seasons, the dabs.com logo will [appear] from the start of the new season.
On 31st May 2006 the dabs.com French website (dabs.fr) was closed and is no longer able to accept new orders.
BT has celebrated the 10th anniversary of its 2006 acquisition of [dabs.com] by binning it and shifting its remaining customers to BT-branded websites [..] The death of Dabs.com will be completed by 11 April
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from 11th April 2016, we'll be retiring the dabs.com brand and moving forward with just our BT Shop brand for consumer customers. For business customers, we'd encourage you to shop online at BT Business Direct
With effect from 11th April 2016, we'll also be retiring the dabs.ie brand [..] For consumer customers in the Republic of Ireland, this means you won't be able to place new orders with us. [..] We hope [business customers will] consider buying online at our newly rebranded BT Business Direct Ireland
