A British registered AgustaWestland AW109S Grand has recently been sold by one British retailer to another.

Previously G-CDWY with Mike Ashley’s SportsDirect group, the helicopter is moving further north into Scotland, where it has been bought by Edinburgh Woollen Mill.  Part of the sale will be the change of registration of this aircraft – serial 22011 – to G-PDAY, which reflects the name of Chief Executive Philip Day.  The helicopter is in fact registered to a separate company – Proquip (Group) Ltd – which also operates from the the same address as Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

The company website (http://www.ewm.co.uk) tells us that Edinburgh Woollen Mill was founded by Drew Stevenson in 1946 as the Langholm Dyeing and Finishing Company, undertaking the dyeing of yarn on a contract basis. The development into retailing began in 1970, when the Group opened its first shop in Randolph Place, Edinburgh.  The company has had a number of owners dating from the early 1970s and was divested by Grampian Holdings in 2001. The business was taken over by a management buy-in led by Philip Day and, over the next few years Philip returned the company back to being an independent privately-owned business which is now owned 100% by the Day family.

Jeremy Parkin – HeliHub.com

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