Home and Colonial Stores
Home and Colonial Stores were a nationwide chain of grocery stores that was founded by a pair of London tea traders, Julius Drewe and John Musker who formed a partnership to sell tea called the Home and Colonial Tea association in 1885. The company was incorporated, bringing in William Slaughter as Chairman of the group and the number of branches expanded rapidly - reaching 100 by the turn of the century, and 500 some three years later in 1903. Buying the share capital of Maypole Dairies, then a series of mergers with other grocery chains including Liptons resulted in a growth to over 3,000 branches across the UK between the years 1924 & 1931.
Of these, Hastings & St Leonards had four branches in 1915; 58 George Street, 11 York Buildings, 29 Kings Road, 102 Bohemia Road[1], dropping to three by 1962 (11 York Buildings, 29 Kings Rd and 102 Bohemia Rd)[2] with a branch opened at 10 Robertson Street by 1969[3]
In 1961, the chain rebranded to become Allied Suppliers - a company that Home and Colonial had incorporated in 1929[4]
A further rebranding took place in 1972, when the Allied chain were purchased by Cavenham Foods. Further mergers took place in subsequent years, in part due to competition from supermarket chains, and following the purchase of the supermarket chain 'Cater Bros' for £9.5 million in 1979 another rebranding took place to 'Presto'. By 1981, the chain was reporting profits of some £800 million. Following an acquisition by the Argyll Foods group in 1982, the brand finally became Safeway UK[4]
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