The bad news of its closure was announced by the company one year later, bringing to an end a piece of Sheffield history that went back to 1847, when Cole Brothers opened their first store on Fargate.
Usually, March was a happy time when staff, who are called partners as they have a share in the business, found out what their bonus would be.
The store has always been called Cole Brothers or just Coles by generations of Sheffielders. Here we look back on just a small part of that history in pictures, dating from the point when Coles moved from Fargate to Barker’s Pool.
13. Museum piece
Curator Clara Morgan with a true Sheffield icon, the original 1960s Cole Brothers sign which found a new home on the wall in the Sheffield Life and Times gallery at Weston Park Museum in Sheffield on July 28, 2016 Photo: Scott Merrylees