Presto (UK Supermarket)

Presto Food Markets Limited

You'll be Impressed in Presto
Industry	Grocery, General merchandise
Fate	Stores converted to Safeway
Successor	Safeway (UK)
Founded	1964
Defunct	1998
Headquarters	Hayes, Greater London
Parent	Safeway (UK) (Formerly Argyll Stores Ltd)

Presto Foodmarkets was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in Great Britain, which first appeared in the early 1960s. While the fate of most of the chain's stores was conversion to Safeway, the final stores still trading as Presto were either closed or sold in 1998.

The company was established in the north of England and in Scotland in the early 1960s where its primary base remained but for some years Presto did have a nationwide presence. According to the Institute of Grocery Distribution the name derives from the town of Prestonpans, the location in which the first Presto store was opened. A store also opened around the same time in the Preston Grange Estate in Preston, Tyne and Wear.

Presto was a division of Allied Suppliers which also operated 500 Lipton supermarkets in England and Wales as well as the brands Galbraith and R & J Templeton with around 85 supermarkets in Scotland. Allied also operated a discount chain, Lo-Cost as well as Cordon Bleu, a chain of freezer centres. Presto was the most significant brand, operating primarily large supermarkets and superstores throughout the country. In 1979 it purchased the south east based chain Cater Brothers and incorporated them into the Presto brand.

In 1982, Presto and its 136 stores transferred, together with the rest of Allied Suppliers to Argyll Foods Ltd. Allied Suppliers was sold by its then owner James Goldsmith for £101 million. For some time Argyll continued to operate the brands as it had acquired them.

In 1985, Argyll began a major re-organisation of its food store division. In Scotland and Northern England, the Hintons, Lipton, Galbraith and Templeton stores were either re-branded as Presto stores or closed. For some time, Hintons' direct marketing magazine "Going Shopping" continued with the Presto name including the headline "Presto - Our Heart's in the North". Liptons stores in the rest of England and Wales were either closed or converted to Presto (larger stores) or Lo-Cost (smaller stores).