Ideal World - History

History

Founded in the 1980s as a mail order company selling products via national press adverts and consumer exhibitions The company was then called Wrightway Marketing and was run by Paul Wright and his business partner Val Kaye. The company later produced its own catalogues, inserted into the Daily Mail, and sold at the Ideal Home exhibition.

In 1999, land was bought in Peterborough with a view to building premises to serve as live TV studios, offices, warehousing, and a call centre. Ideal World was launched on 17 April 2000 on digital satellite broadcasting 24 hours a day. A pre-launch documentary was recorded by a documentary team from Channel 4, charting the channel's launch onto Sky and featuring the main management of the time and the Presentation team of Paul Lavers, Debbie Flint and Steve Whatley, and was called "Telly Sales".

Ideal's motto of "Family, Friendship and Fun" that was used to launch the TV channel (still used to this day) was personified by the on-screen behaviour of its presenting team. Broadcasting live for just a few hours a day at Launch, the less authoritative and more casual look, feel and style of the channel was well received by the viewing public. At a time when QVC still had very little competition except for the Infomercials, this much more relaxed, warmer and friendlier style of traditional TV shopping appealed to many, and has acted as a blueprint for subsequent shopping channels, such as bid-up.tv (now Bid) and its sister channels. As well as the Launch team, the viewership was introduced to stalwart presenters Shaun Ryan and Ellis Ward (of You Bet fame), as well as some other familiar presenters and guests from elsewhere in Shopping TV.

On 6 March 2001, the facility at Peterborough was completely destroyed by fire. The channel was back broadcasting within weeks from various temporary facilities whilst the main building was rebuilt: it was not fully operational again until September 2002. Ideal World has not disclosed whether a cause was found for the fire.

As the television side of the business re-grew, sales in the catalogue business slowed down and became insignificant in their contribution to the company, and the catalogue business was wound down in order to fully concentrate on selling on TV. A catalogue-style website, Ideal World Essentials, was produced for a short time featuring essential products for the home; this has since been closed and now links back to Ideal World itself.

On 18 April 2003, Create and Craft was launched with the website following on 23 August 2003. It is now possible to Join the Create and Craft Club to receive a 10% discount on purchases on Createandcraft.tv, amongst other benefits, free gifts and privileges. Create and Craft launched on Freesat on 15 September 2009

1 January 2004 saw the launch of Ideal Vitality. This was originally a channel from Goldshield, "Goldshield Vitality", for which Ideal Shopping Direct provided the studio recording and broadcast facilities. However, by the end of 2005 Goldshield pulled out of the venture. Ideal Shopping then broadcast a similar channel focusing on health and beauty products from Ideal's range, under the 'Vitality' name. Ideal Vitality was then wound down and replaced with highlights from past Ideal World shows 24-7, the channel being renamed on the Sky EPG as "Ideal World 2". "Ideal World 3", then followed, repeating Ideal World 2 shows.

Although pre-recorded in the vast majority, Create and Craft now offers live programming 9 hours a day, every day. It broadcasts 24 hours a day on Freesat; programmes after 7pm being repeats

On 23 April 2004, Ideal World began broadcasting on Freeview channel 22 which massively increased its potential customer base and drove business growth in the next couple of years, and meaning that come digital switch-over, any home with a TV will be able to tune into Ideal World and purchase products.

Jewellery Vault, a falling-auction style jewellery channel was launched on 1 July 2005 broadcasting live 5pm-1am and subsequently closed in July 2006 due to it not covering its operating costs.

On 3 November 2007, the Ideal World Outlet in the Rivergate Centre, Peterborough, was opened by Shaun Ryan and Debbie Shore. Ideal World Outlet was Ideal's first 'traditional' shop, where end-of-line items and customer returns are sold at further discounts. It later closed down.

Other projects that have featured in recent years are: iChild, a subscription club for expectant mothers with advice and relevant products; Ideal World Essentials, an online 'turning page' catalogue from which popular and new Ideal Shopping products could be purchased at any time, and Ideal World Savings Club, a voucher booklet for popular venues across the UK such as pizza restaurants, wine bars etc. All of these ventures have now closed.

Early in 2008, Ideal World also agreed to re-broadcast Smart Live Casino in its early morning hours, from 1am to 3am, on its Freeview Slot, to allow the Roulette broadcaster access to the Freeview audience. This agreement has now ended .

On 3 March 2010, 'Ideal World 2' was renamed 'Ideal Extra' and 'Ideal World 3' was renamed 'Ideal & More'. On the same day, 'Ideal Extra' launched on Freeview until on 1 June 2010. On 14 October 2010, 'Ideal Extra' launched on Freesat channel 810.

In January 2010, Ideal Shopping acquired Lead the Good Life, under which they run gardenbargains.com website. In September 2010, the company launched Pets and Wildlife Ltd, under which they run two transactional websites, lovepets.co.uk (formerly animalbargains.com) and britishwildlife.tv

The company was taken private through an acquisition by Inflexion Private Equity in 2011. The £78.3m deal was announced in April 2011 and completed in June when the company was delisted from the AIM stock market. In February 2012 Ideal acquired Internet site Createtoday.com and made their second acquisition in May 2012 when they acquired knitting Internet retailer Deramores.

On 24 August 2012, 'Ideal & More' was renamed as 'The Deal Channel'.

On 1st November 2012 "Createtoday.com" was relaunched as "mydoodle.com" with a significantly revamped website and product offering to focus on high quality greetings cards and wall art.