1928: British Home Stores is set up by a group of US entrepreneurs, opening its first store in Brixton. A rival to Woolworths, within a year it had expanded into home furnishings.

1970: After a period of expansion the firm employs 12,000 workers in 94 UK stores.

1982: BHS overhauls its stores, switching from a supermarket-style to a department store.

1986: The store merges with Habitat and Mothercare to form Storehouse Plc and "British Home Stores" eventually becomes "BHS"

1995: BHS opens a branch in Moscow, later expanding into central Asia, the Middle East, Hong Kong and the Falkland Islands.

2000: Retail billionaire Sir Philip Green buys BHS for £200m

2002: BHS becomes part of Green's Arcadia empire when he buys the clothing group and its Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burton brands

2005: Pension scheme is closed to new members. The store resurrects its "British Home Stores". Green awards himself a record-breaking £1.2bn payout from the Arcadia group, paid to his Monaco-based wife and exempting them from tax.

READ MORE: 1000 Scottish jobs at risk as BHS collapses into administration

2006: Green attempts to sell BHS to Asda and Debenhams.

2009: Pension scheme halts new accruals for existing members as deficit soars to nearly £140m.

2015: Sir Philip sells the loss-making BHS for £1 to Retail Acquisitions led by Dominic Chappell, writing off £215m of debts in the process. Pension fund deficit reaches £226m. Retail Acquisitions begins talks to raise £70m of funding.

2016 - KPMG brought in to help cut rent bill on a number of problem stores after poor Christmas trading.

- The store is thrown a lifeline in March when creditors back two company voluntary arrangements (CVA) designed to cut costs and prevent widespread store closures

- The company warns it still needs to raise £100m to pay staff wages and rent, and fund its turnaround plan. Rescue talks with Mike Ashley's Sports Direct fail.

READ MORE: 1000 Scottish jobs at risk as BHS collapses into administration

- BHS begins an insolvency procedure to reduce its rents and transfer its pensions liabilities into the Pension Protection Fund, the government-supported rescue agency.