Hintons: Difference between revisions

The company was founded by Amos Hinton in [[Middlesbrough]] in 1871, when he bought out John Birks' shop in South Street.<ref name=history>[http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/archive/2003/10/04/The+North+East+Archive/7013570.Not_the_weakest_link_in_the_chain/ Not the weakest link in the chain] Northern Echo, 4 October 2003</ref> By 1919 the business had expanded such that it had seven stores on [[Teesside]].<ref name=history/> It went on to buy ''Winterschladen'', a chain of off- licences.<ref name=history/>

The company was acquired by [[Argyll Foods]] for £25 million in 1984. At the time the company traded from 55 stores and 30thirty off- licences. The head office had moved to [[Thornaby-on-Tees]], where there was also limited warehousing. There was a distribution centre in [[Stockton-on-Tees]], which is still used today by [[Morrisons]] today. While Hintons own brand products were quickly replaced with [[Presto (UK supermarket)|Presto]] brands, the supermarkets continued to trade as Hintons for a short while before all being converted to stores of [[Presto (UK supermarket)|Presto]] stores.

The Hintons name disappeared from all of the stores in the same week as the Presto brand was rolled out across Argyll's estate. The Winterschladen name continued to be used on the off licences for many years, until those stores were eventually sold and became [[First Quench Retailing|Victoria Wine]] stores.<ref name=history/>