Safeway UK
 |
|
| Industry | Grocery, General merchandise |
|---|---|
| Fate | Defunct - Purchased by Wm Morrison and rebranded |
| Successor |
Wm Morrison Supermarkets Asda (Northern Ireland only) Waitrose Supermarkets |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Defunct | 24 November 2005 (merged into Wm Morrison Supermarkets) |
| Headquarters | Hayes, Greater London |
|
Key people
|
David Webster (Chairman) Carlos Criado-Perez (CEO) |
| Parent | Morrisons (since 2004) |
| Website | - Safeway website - Archive |
Safeway was a chain of supermarkets and convenience stores in the United Kingdom. It started as a subsidiary of the American Safeway Inc., before being sold off in 1987.
Safeway was listed on the and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, until it was acquired by Morrisons in March 2004. Most of its 479 stores were rebranded as Morrisons, with others being sold off. The brand disappeared from the United Kingdom on 24 November 2005.
In November 2016, however, Morrisons announced that the Safeway brand would be revived on a range of food products, manufactured in the company's own factories, for distribution through independent retailers within the United Kingdom.
The earliest origin of Safeway in the United Kingdom lies with the establishment of the Home and Colonial Stores, later renamed Argyll Foods, in 1883. By the start of the twentieth century, Home and Colonial Stores had become one of the largest grocery retailers in Britain, increasing its market share through organic expansion and takeovers, including Safeway in the United Kingdom in 1987.
As a specifically identifiable brand, Safeway was established in 1962 in the United Kingdom by the American supermarket chain Safeway Inc., which opened its first store in the United Kingdom in Bedford in 1963: it was then known as Safeway Food Stores. By 1987, it had 133 stores around the United Kingdom.
In 1987, Safeway Inc. put Safeway Food Stores up for sale. Argyll Foods eventually secured it for the sum of £681m, with £600m raised through a rights issue that was three times oversubscribed. The merger of Argyll and Safeway was hailed by commentators as one of the most successfully integrated retail combinations in the United Kingdom, bringing together Argyll's experienced management team, with a strong but somewhat underdeveloped retail brand.
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Wikipedia