Clas Ohlson company was founded in 1918 by the technically minded Clas Ohlson (1895–1979), as a mail order business based in the Swedish village of Insjön, Dalarna. Initially, only manuals and technical literature were sold, thus allowing people who lived in rural communities to obtain literature that would otherwise be unavailable. He opened his first shop in Insjön in 1926, but it was not until 1989, when the company opened a store in a shopping centre in central Stockholm, that it expanded into the retail business. The first store outside Sweden was opened 1991 in Oslo in Norway and in 1999, the
The Headrow of Allders in 2005, Broad Gate was closed for refurbishment. Since 2008, half of the Broad Gate building has been transformed into offices and the other half has remained open to the public as separate retail units occupied by retailers including Sainsbury's, T.K. Maxx, Argos and Clas Ohlson. In 2016 Clas Ohlson was closed and In 2017 the unit was re-opened by Home Sense. Opposite the former Odeon cinema is Crash Records, which has been a fixture of the Leeds music scene for 30 years. The Light houses a 13-screen multiplex cinema operated by Vue and a Virgin Active Gym,