 | |
| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1878 |
| Defunct | 1994 |
| Fate | Acquired |
| Successor | Somerfield |
| Headquarters | London, England |
| Products | Groceries |
International Tea Co. Stores was a leading chain of grocers based in London. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies listed on the London Stock Exchange.
The business was founded in 1878 by Hudson Kearley (later Viscount Devonport) and Gilbert Augustus Tonge as the International Tea Co., with the objective of selling tea direct to consumers rather than through wholesalers. [1] International's main blenders were Ridgways, [2] which became part of the group with the acquisition of Star Supply Stores in 1929. [3]
Soon, most towns in Southern England had their own International Tea Co. store, [1] as immortalised in a verse from John Betjeman's poem Myfanwy: [4]
Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,
Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,
Home and Colonial, Star, International,
Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.
International Tea Co. Stores fell out of the FT 30 index in 1947 to reflect market developments since the index was originally compiled in 1935. [5]
The company was subsequently re-branded International Stores and was acquired by BAT Industries in 1972. [6] In 1973, the Price Rite chain was purchased, adding stores to the International brand. This was further increased by the purchase of Wallis Supermarkets in 1977, which added a further 100 stores. [7] After acquiring the large footprint Mac Food Centres from Unilever's closure of Mac Fisheries, [8] in 1979, the chain created a new brand, Mainstop, to develop the new superstore division in 1980. However, BAT decided to sell any business that failed to progress and so the company was sold off in chunks. Former Price Rite stores in the south of England were sold off in 1980 to Fine Fare, with the remaining 67 branches sold to Argyll Foods in 1982. [7]
In 1984, International Stores was sold to the Dee Corporation. [9] The company became the Gateway Corporation in 1988, and then Somerfield plc in 1994. [10]
Safeway is a British brand owned by Morrisons and was a former food wholesaler, chain of supermarkets and convenience shops. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987.
Wm Morrison Supermarkets, trading as Morrisons, is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, and is headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England.
Sobeys Inc. is the second largest supermarket chain in Canada, with over 1,500 stores operating across Canada under a variety of banners. Headquartered in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, it operates stores in all ten provinces and accumulated sales of more than C$25.1 billion in the fiscal 2019 operating year. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Empire Company Limited, a Canadian business conglomerate.
Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. is an American discount supermarket chain store headquartered in St. Ann, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It is a subsidiary of Onex Corporation with about 900 independently owned and operated stores across 32 states in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie", is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with the highest market capitalisation. The index is maintained by the FTSE Group, a subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group.
British Home Stores, commonly abbreviated to BHS and latterly legally styled BHS Ltd, was a British department store chain, primarily selling clothing and household items. In its later years, the company began to expand into furniture, electronics, entertainment, convenience groceries and fragrance and beauty products.
Somerfield was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company also previously owned the Kwik Save chain of discount food stores. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth-largest food retailer. The Somerfield name was replaced by the Co-operative brand in a rolling programme of store conversions ending in summer 2011.
Budgens Stores Ltd, trading as Budgens, is a chain of grocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen, who opened the first shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire and was incorporated as a private limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary and retail fascia of Booker Group, part of Tesco plc.
Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain that was founded in the United Kingdom. Prior to 2007, it was also a discount supermarket chain that had shops across the United Kingdom. It went into administration in July 2007, but was brought back in April 2012. Its shops were small to medium-sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes.
Associated British Foods plc (ABF) is a British multinational food processing and retailing company headquartered in London, England. Its ingredients division is the world's second-largest producer of both sugar and baker's yeast and a major producer of other ingredients including emulsifiers, enzymes and lactose. Its grocery division is a major manufacturer of both branded and private label grocery products and includes the brands Mazola, Ovaltine, Ryvita, Jordans and Twinings. Its retail division, Primark, has some 384 stores across several countries, predominantly Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. ACH Food Companies is an American subsidiary.
Currys is a British electrical retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by Currys plc and selling home electronics and home appliances.
Fine Fare was a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Their Yellow Pack budget own-label range, introduced in 1980, was the first own brand basic ranges to be introduced in the UK.
Booker Group Limited is a British food wholesale operator and subsidiary of Tesco.
Express Dairies is a former brand of Dairy Crest, that specialised almost entirely in home deliveries of milk, and other dairy products.
Home and Colonial Stores was once one of the United Kingdom's largest retail chains. Its formation of a vast chain of retail stores in the late 1920s is seen as the first step in the development of a UK food retail market dominated by a small number of food multiples.
Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom retail chain of fishmongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers, which later merged to become Unilever.
Fitch Lovell was a British food manufacturing, transportation, distribution and retail company with origins dating to 1784, and was finally merged into Booker Group in 1991 after they had purchased it in 1990 for £279.7 million.
My Local was a chain of 130 convenience shops in the United Kingdom.
Star Supply Stores was a leading chain of British grocers.
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