The company was founded as Wm Morrison Limited in June 1899 by William Morrison, who started the business as an egg and butter merchant in Rawson Market, Bradford, England. His son Ken Morrison took over the company in 1952, aged 21. In 1958, Morrisons opened a small shop in the city centre.
The British Safeway was founded in 1962 by the American Safeway Inc., before being sold to Argyll Foods in 1987. It was purchased by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 shops were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold. Safeway-branded shops disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
McColl's was a British convenience shop, newsagent and post office operator, founded in 1973. The chain also traded as RS McColl's in Scotland, and used the name Martin's for its newsagent-format shops. In May 2022, British supermarket chain Morrisons rescued McColl's from administration, with 132 stores set to close.
The first permanent self-service grocery store in the United Kingdom was opened 12 January 1948 in Manor Park, London by the Co-op, with Tesco opening their first self-service grocery store and Marks & Spencer starting a trial of self-service in the same year.
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) has hired Sir Dave to strengthen its consumer and retail offering, just three years after it bought Morrisons for £10bn. The retailer veteran is widely credited with turning around Tesco during his stint as chief executive from 2014 to 2020.
Morrisons supermarket has agreed a £2.5bn deal to sell its 337 petrol forecourts to Motor Fuel Group (MFG) as part of a new tie-up. Both firms are owned by the US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. As part of the deal, MFG will also take on hundreds of Morrisons' electric vehicle (EV) charging sites.
Aldi has overtaken Morrisons to become the fourth biggest UK supermarket, with Lidl the fastest growing grocer for the fourth month in a row. The discounters are benefitting as people tighten their purse strings, with Aldi now ending the 'traditional big four'.
Morrisons celebrates 125 years of serving our customers, marking a significant milestone since its founding in 1899 as a market stall in Bradford. Over the years, Morrisons has grown from being a small market trader into being one of the UK's largest supermarket chains.
The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It went into administration on 6 July 2007, and closed most of its shops across the United Kingdom, with the remaining 56 being sold to a new company, FreshXpress, which itself went into administration in March 2008.
Today, there are almost 12,700 supermarkets in the UK, with the largest chain being Co-op Food – the brand that launched Britain's first supermarket 76 years ago. Back in 1948, the first UK self-service shop was the London Co-operative Society's unique store in Manor Park, in the East End borough of Newham.
What happens to unsold food in supermarkets in the UK?
Where surplus food can't be redistributed to people, we work to keep its value in the system through a circular approach. This includes converting unsold food into high-quality animal feed for use across our supply chain, and where that's not possible, into energy via anaerobic digestion.
There were still lots of individual shops, but supermarkets were a new thing. The Presto you pictured started itlife in the main High Street. Also in the High Street were M & S food hall, Sainsbury's and Tesco. There were also Kwiksave and Linbar out of town and Fine Fare at PE Way.
Dieter did not want to use the name Schwarz-Markt (literally "black market") and wanted to use the name of his father's former business partner, A. Lidl, but legal reasons prevented him from using that name for his discount stores.
The Tesco brand first appeared in 1924. The name came about after Jack Cohen bought a shipment of tea from Thomas Edward Stockwell. He made new labels using the initials of the supplier's name (TES), and the first two letters of his surname (CO), forming the word TESCO.
The George brand was founded in 1989 as a partnership between English fashion designer George Davies and Asda. The latter had recruited the high-street designer for its grocery store brand to help shoppers avoid high street.
Morrisons supermarket has agreed a £2.5bn deal to sell its 337 petrol forecourts to Motor Fuel Group (MFG) as part of a new tie-up. Both firms are owned by the US private equity group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. As part of the deal, MFG will also take on hundreds of Morrisons' electric vehicle (EV) charging sites.
