|
| caption =
| fate = Name change/acquisition
| predecessor = R & J Templeton, [[Galbraith supermarkets]]
| successor = Allied Suppliers / [[Cavenham Foods]]
| foundation = 1883
| subsid =
}}
'''Home and Colonial Stores''' was once one of the [[United Kingdom]]'s largest [[Chain store|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.
==History==
[[File:Home and Colonial Stores May 10, 1910.jpg|thumb|left|Shop assistants outside the Home and Colonial Stores on Broad Street, [[Waterford]], May 1910]]
The business was founded by [[Julius Drewe]] (1856–1931), who went into partnership with John Musker in 1883, selling [[groceries]] at a small [[colonial goods store]] in [[Edgware Road]] in London.<ref name=odnb>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/46889 Julius Drewe at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]</ref> He subsequently opened stores in [[Islington]], [[Birmingham]] and [[Leeds]].<ref name=odnb/> The shops mainly sold [[tea]];<ref name=odnb/> by 1885 they were trading as the 'Home & Colonial Tea Association'.<ref name=odnb/>
On the incorporation of the business in 1888, William Slaughter took over as [[chairman]].<ref name=odnb/> By the turn of the century the company had over 100 stores;<ref>[{{Cite web |url=http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.5918 |title=20th Century London Posters] |access-date=10 June 2009 |archive-date=23 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723030913/http://www.20thcenturylondon.org.uk/server.php?show=conObject.5918 |url-status=dead }}</ref> by 1903, it had 500.<ref name=odnb/>
Home &and Colonial bought the share capital of Maypole Dairies of [[Wolverhampton]] from the Watson family in 1924.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/maypole/maypole01.htm |publisher=Wolverhampton History & Heritage |last= Clare|first= David |title=Maypole Dairies|accessdate= 29 July 2014}}</ref> Between 1924 and 1931, several stores, including [[Lipton#History|Liptons]], merged with Home &and Colonial to form a company with over 3,000 branches.<ref>Supermarkets; a report on the supply of groceries from multiple stores in the United Kingdom. Volume 2, page 8, The Competition Commission, October 2000</ref> Within this period of rapid change, Home and Colonial formed Allied Suppliers to act as a buyer on behalf of the whole group.<ref>''Home & Colonial Stores'', The Times, 8 March, P.19, 1930</ref>
From 1948 until 1964, the group Chairman and CEO was [[Lancelot Royle|Sir Lancelot Royle]], [[Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire|KBE]]. He had joined the group in 1928. By 1955, the company was ranked 27th-largest in UK.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GjizSWVbIiIC&pg=PA428&dq=%22ivan+Stedeford%22&lrpg=&as_brr=3&ei=RbjgSpyCOIWCyATk3OigBw#v=onepage&q=%22ivan%20Stedeford%22&f=falsePA428 |title=Rise of Big Business|first=Barry|last= Supple|
|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|year= 1992|isbn=978-1852785710}}</ref>
By 1960, Home & Colonial Stores Ltd was still a major force in the UK food industry. With retail operations in the UK and abroad and factories in the UK, it was able to report a 10% rise in profits to £4,033,057.<ref>The Times, ''The Home & Colonial Stores Ltd'', 11 May 1960</ref>
By 1961, reflecting the end of the [[British Empire]], the group had restyled itself under the name of the company it created in 1929, Allied Suppliers. Early in 1972, Allied was acquired by [[Cavenham Foods]], formed sixeight years previously by British tycoon [[James Goldsmith]]. [[Melia's Grocers and Tea Dealers]], another popular grocery chain at the time, was forced to amalgamate with the Home and Colonial company due to competition from larger national supermarkets.<ref>Practical grocer: a manual and guide for the grocer, the provision merchant and allied trades, Volume 1, W.H.Simmonds</ref> The business purchased the South East-based supermarket chain [[Cater Brothers]] from [[Debenhams]] in 1979, and converted the stores into its [[Presto (UK Supermarket)|Presto]] brand.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Waters|first1=David|title=Cater Brothers - A Story of a Supermarket|url=http://www.ferdinando.org.uk/cater_brothers.htm|accessdate=22 April 2015|ref=waters}}</ref>
By 1981, Allied had a turnover of £800m800 million.<ref>"Gulliver and his Expansive Travels", ''The Times'', 6 July 1982, p21</ref> In the following year it was acquired by [[James Gerald Gulliver|James Gulliver]]'s [[Argyll Foods]]; five years later Argyll merged with [[Safeway (UK)|Safeway UK]].<ref>Geoffrey Owen [http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/24-05-04%20-%20Background%20paper%20by%20Geoffrey%20Owen.pdf Corporate Strategy in UK Food Retailing 1980-2002''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627171320/http://cep.lse.ac.uk/seminarpapers/24-05-04%2B-%2BBackground%2Bpaper%2Bby%2BGeoffrey%2BOwen.pdf |date=27 June 2008}}, p.8</ref>
==In literature==
</blockquote>
In [[Dorothy L. Sayers]]' novel ''[[Busman's Honeymoon]]'' (19351937), the "Home and Colonial" network is mentioned as maintainingoperating a branch also atin the small Hertfordshire village where the book's plot is set—indicatingset, indicating its wide reach at the time of writing. A local woman tells [[Lord Peter Wimsey]] and his's servant [[Mervyn Bunter|Bunter]] that groceries sold atby the "HomeOme and& Colonial" are "better and half a penny cheaper" than those provided by the village grocer. This seems to refer to a delivery van rather than a local branch, since another local says that the Home and Colonial "don'st unaffiliatedget grocerhere till past eleven," and Bunter later says he "succeeded in intercepting the Home & Colonial" to purchase something.<ref>[[Dorothy L. Sayers|Sayers, Dorothy]] (1935) ''[[Busman's Honeymoon]]'', Gollancz Services</ref>
==References==
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