Argyll Foods

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Argyll Foods

Argyll Foods plc was the fourth biggest supermarket operator in the United Kingdom, through its acquisitions of a number of smaller supermarkets. In 1987 the company acquired Safeway Inc.'s UK subsidiary and in 1996 it changed its name to Safeway plc.

History

Early years

The company was founded as James Gulliver Associates in 1977 by

Chief Executive, Alistair Grant, a marketing specialist and David Webster, a merchant banker.[1] The founders acquired two food businesses, Morgan Edwards, a business owning the Supervalu chain of foodstores, and Louis C. Edwards, a meat business in Manchester,[2]
integrated them and then, in 1980, adopted the name Argyll Foods after Gulliver's place of birth.

In 1981 the company bought Oriel Foods, a food manufacturing and wholesaling business which the founders had briefly owned previously in the 1970s before they sold it to

Monopolies Commission and did not proceed.[3]

Presto and other acquisitions

The company went on to buy Allied Suppliers from Cavenham Foods in 1982: this brought with it the Presto, Liptons, Galbraith and R & J Templeton chains.[2] The company had become the fourth biggest supermarket with 923 stores.[4]

In 1984 Argyll acquired the

North East of England, Cumbria and Yorkshire.[5][6]

In 1985 Presto became Argyll's principal name for all larger stores as well as smaller stores in the North of England and Scotland. The Lo-Cost banner was used in the rest of England and in Wales on the smaller stores: a new Presto logo was launched and plans made for new Presto regional distribution centres in Bristol, Wakefield, Bathgate and Welwyn Garden City.

In 1986 Argyll hoped to buy

Distillers plc but were hindered by the infamous Guinness share-trading fraud.[2]

Safeway acquisition

Argyll and

Safeway, Inc.
the first of which had been opened in 1962.

In July 1996 Argyll conducted a share buyback and then renamed itself Safeway plc.[8]

References

  1. ^ James Gulliver, Chairman of Food Group, dies at 66
  2. ^ a b c d Brian Basham Obituary: James Gulliver, The Independent, 23 September 1996
  3. ^ Andrew Seth and Geoffrey Randall The Grocers, London and Dover, New Hampshiere: Kogan, p.103
  4. ISBN 9780749435493
    . Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  5. Northern Echo. 4 October 2003. Archived from the original
    on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2019.
  6. Northern Echo. Archived from the original
    on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  7. ^ Geoffrey Owen Corporate Strategy in UK Food Retailing 1980-2002 Archived 2008-06-27 at the Wayback Machine, p.8
  8. ^ "Argyll Group plc intends a stock buy back". Archived from the original on 18 July 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2020.

External links

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