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Somerfield
Somerfield (/ˈsʌmərfiːld/ SUM-ər-feeld) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gateway. A major rebranding to the created Somerfield brand started in 1990, and in 1998 the company purchased 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.
The company had its origins in a Bristol-based grocer known as J.H. Mills which was founded in 1875 and which developed a self-service supermarket chain named Gateway Foodmarkets in 1960. During the early 1970s, Gateway operated primarily in the southwest of England with a few stores elsewhere. Ford and Lock stores and S&H Pink Stamp acquisitions took place during the period when loyalty stamps were prevalent and the first freezer centres were opened. Gateway Foodmarkets was taken over by Linfood Holdings, a consortium which already owned the Frank Dee Supermarkets which operated over the north and east of England. At the time, Frank Dee Supermarkets and the larger DEE Discount stores were a business larger than Gateway and had a chain of 79 supermarkets, in 1977. In 1983, Linfood Holdings was renamed the Dee Corporation. Initial plans were proposed to utilise the distribution depots on three main sites; the thriving Frank Dee's purpose built facilities in Anlaby and Billingham, and the existing Gateway warehousing site in Bristol.
Alec Monk, chief executive of the Dee Corporation, having escaped a takeover bid from Argyll Foods in 1981, decided to create his own supermarket empire. Three of the biggest acquisitions were of Key Markets Supermarkets from Fitch Lovell, International Stores, bought from British American Tobacco in 1984, and Fine Fare, bought from Associated British Foods the following year. The company also purchased the UK arm of the French retailer, Carrefour when the French retailer exited Britain in the late 1980s. By this time, the Dee Corporation had over 1,100 stores and nearly 12% of the market, not far behind Sainsbury's and Tesco. Most of the Dee Corporation's outlets were small, high-street stores. Monk argued that there was a future for well-run conventional supermarkets as well as the large out-of-town stores.
However, by 1987 the Dee Corporation ran into problems, mainly because of the difficulty of integrating so many disparate businesses. Some disposals were made in that year, including the Linfood wholesaling operation. In 1988, the Dee Corporation changed its name to the Gateway Corporation, and a new retailing chief was recruited from the US. Investors remained sceptical, and in 1989 the company was the subject of a £2bn takeover bid from a newly formed company, Isosceles; the deal was partly financed by a pre-arranged sale of 61 Gateway stores to Asda.
When Isosceles, a newly created financial group led by David Smith and backed by several big investment institutions, bid successfully for Gateway in 1989 and took the company private, the plan was to restructure the business and refocus it on what were called "middle ground" outlets, falling between the larger out of town superstores and smaller, inner-city neighbourhood shops; the average size of the stores was between 5,000 sq ft (460 m2) and 10,000 sq ft (930 m2). The promoters of the Isosceles bid believed that, after this disposal and extensive restructuring of the rest of the portfolio, Gateway could become a viable competitor; the intention was to re-float the company on the stock market within three to five years. However, the bid was highly leveraged, and it was not clear that the new company would be able to fund the necessary modernisation of the business.
Some of the planned disposals of non-core businesses took longer than expected to complete. Financial strains led to the enforced departure of David Smith and other executives in 1991.
In the following year, a new chief executive, Bob Willett, was appointed and a decision was taken to rebrand the company's operations as Somerfield after a successful pilot scheme in 1990 with a new store and the first Somerfield store in the country being built in Burnham on Sea, Somerset, and the company then built its success upon the new brand alongside the existing Gateway and Food Giant chains. A small number of stores were also relaunched under a new Food Giant discount brand, with the first store opening in Nottingham in 1991.
Two years later, a further chief executive, David Simons, was in the post. In May 1994, the company changed its name to Somerfield plc.
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Somerfield
Somerfield (/ˈsʌmərfiːld/ SUM-ər-feeld) was a chain of small to medium-sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The business started life in the 19th century as grocers J. H. Mills, and after a series of buyouts and mergers, the company became known as Gateway. A major rebranding to the created Somerfield brand started in 1990, and in 1998 the company purchased 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.
The company had its origins in a Bristol-based grocer known as J.H. Mills which was founded in 1875 and which developed a self-service supermarket chain named Gateway Foodmarkets in 1960. During the early 1970s, Gateway operated primarily in the southwest of England with a few stores elsewhere. Ford and Lock stores and S&H Pink Stamp acquisitions took place during the period when loyalty stamps were prevalent and the first freezer centres were opened. Gateway Foodmarkets was taken over by Linfood Holdings, a consortium which already owned the Frank Dee Supermarkets which operated over the north and east of England. At the time, Frank Dee Supermarkets and the larger DEE Discount stores were a business larger than Gateway and had a chain of 79 supermarkets, in 1977. In 1983, Linfood Holdings was renamed the Dee Corporation. Initial plans were proposed to utilise the distribution depots on three main sites; the thriving Frank Dee's purpose built facilities in Anlaby and Billingham, and the existing Gateway warehousing site in Bristol.
Alec Monk, chief executive of the Dee Corporation, having escaped a takeover bid from Argyll Foods in 1981, decided to create his own supermarket empire. Three of the biggest acquisitions were of Key Markets Supermarkets from Fitch Lovell, International Stores, bought from British American Tobacco in 1984, and Fine Fare, bought from Associated British Foods the following year. The company also purchased the UK arm of the French retailer, Carrefour when the French retailer exited Britain in the late 1980s. By this time, the Dee Corporation had over 1,100 stores and nearly 12% of the market, not far behind Sainsbury's and Tesco. Most of the Dee Corporation's outlets were small, high-street stores. Monk argued that there was a future for well-run conventional supermarkets as well as the large out-of-town stores.
However, by 1987 the Dee Corporation ran into problems, mainly because of the difficulty of integrating so many disparate businesses. Some disposals were made in that year, including the Linfood wholesaling operation. In 1988, the Dee Corporation changed its name to the Gateway Corporation, and a new retailing chief was recruited from the US. Investors remained sceptical, and in 1989 the company was the subject of a £2bn takeover bid from a newly formed company, Isosceles; the deal was partly financed by a pre-arranged sale of 61 Gateway stores to Asda.
When Isosceles, a newly created financial group led by David Smith and backed by several big investment institutions, bid successfully for Gateway in 1989 and took the company private, the plan was to restructure the business and refocus it on what were called "middle ground" outlets, falling between the larger out of town superstores and smaller, inner-city neighbourhood shops; the average size of the stores was between 5,000 sq ft (460 m2) and 10,000 sq ft (930 m2). The promoters of the Isosceles bid believed that, after this disposal and extensive restructuring of the rest of the portfolio, Gateway could become a viable competitor; the intention was to re-float the company on the stock market within three to five years. However, the bid was highly leveraged, and it was not clear that the new company would be able to fund the necessary modernisation of the business.
Some of the planned disposals of non-core businesses took longer than expected to complete. Financial strains led to the enforced departure of David Smith and other executives in 1991.
In the following year, a new chief executive, Bob Willett, was appointed and a decision was taken to rebrand the company's operations as Somerfield after a successful pilot scheme in 1990 with a new store and the first Somerfield store in the country being built in Burnham on Sea, Somerset, and the company then built its success upon the new brand alongside the existing Gateway and Food Giant chains. A small number of stores were also relaunched under a new Food Giant discount brand, with the first store opening in Nottingham in 1991.
Two years later, a further chief executive, David Simons, was in the post. In May 1994, the company changed its name to Somerfield plc.