In 1948, war veteran Charles Lazarus opened his first baby furniture store, Children’s Bargain Town, in Washington, D.C.
Two years later, Lazarus began to sell toys and he soon realised that unlike furniture, toys fell out of fashion or broke – prompting parents to return to the store to buy more.
In June 1957, he restructured his business and opened his first store solely dedicated to toys – creating the Toys R Us brand.
By the early 1980s Toys R Us looked to diversify and the company branches out into children’s clothing when it opened Kids R Us stores in Paramus, New Jersey, and Brookyln, New York.
The firm also went international when it opened outlets in Canada and Singapore.
The chain came to the UK in 1985 and now boasts 105 outlets across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
In 1998, it realised the potential of the internet and allowed people to buy items online from toysrus.com.
Toys R Us’ UK arm was plunged into crisis in 2017 after its American parent company declared bankruptcy in the US and Canada.
Bankruptcy proceedings in the US work differently to the UK, with companies able to seek court backing for a plan to rescue their business if they have the support of lenders.
At first Toys R Us said stores in Britain would not be affected but soon afterwards bosses here announced they would axe hundreds of jobs and a quarter of the chain’s 105 stores in a bid to balance the books.
Its bid to push the changes through under a so-called company voluntary agreement hit a stumbling block, however, because of a row over a £30million black hole in its pension scheme.
Toys R Us required approval from the Pension Protection Fund, which refused to give it unless the firm injected nearly £10m into its retirement pot.
After a tense showdown, bosses eventually agreed to pay £3.8million in 2018 and another £6million over 2019 and 2020.
That deal was supposed to give the company breathing space, but it plunged into administration in 2018.
