| Description | The collection dates from the 19th century when the company was named J H Mills to the 1960s, prior to the renaming of the company as Somerfield. The collection includes ledgers of accounts, minutes for AGMs and directors' meetings, share certificates etc and other official records for Somerfield. The Canadian entrepreneur Garfield Weston bought into UK supermarket outlets in the 1950s and 1960s and the collection also contains records from these related companies including Fine Fare, ABC, Melias, and Sheen and Sons.
Material related to:
A.B.C.
AE Baker
Albert Hanson
Allcock
Allied Merchandising Services
Arthur Hollis
Barrow Stores Ltd
Bat Stores
Blower Bros
Boyce Adams Ltd
British Meat Packing Co.
Buy Well
Calvert and Co
Carlines
CC Barrow and Sons
Cee N Cee Supermarket
Central Gas Appliances
Chamberlains
Chas H Sheen
City Grocers Ltd
Coleman Meat Co
Cussons
David Greig
Delbert Ltd
Fine Fare
First Commercial Land
Ford and Lock
Forrest Stores
Frank Dee
Fred Brown
G.F. Ray
Gardeners
George Spurr
Green and Dyson
H and C Foods
H.L.J. Investment Co.
Headway Construction
Hodgson and Hepworth Ltd
Howardsgate Holdings
I.T.S. Properties Development
International Stores
Intervention Stores
Isosceles plc
J and F Wholesale
Jarman and Flint
John Bull
John Shentall
Joseph Burton
Key Markets
Key Markets
Key Pharmacies
Kwik Save
L and N Stores
Leisuretime Developments
Lennons Supermarkets
Lewingtons
Linfood
Madora Foods
Market Land
Meat Markets
Melias
Merlin Supermarkets
Norfolk Stores
Nottingham and Midland Property Co.
O.P. Nice and Sons
Payless
Personal Assurance Ltd
Promoplan
Redman Property
Rowart
Sandyford
Savon Foods
Saxon Farm
Shopper's Paradise
Star Branches
Stringers Stores
Suffirage
Supa K Stores Ltd
Westons
Wheatsheaf
EUL MS 362/add.1
Additional material from the Somerfield Collection, includes:
- ELMO Stores Minute Book 1937-1964
- ELMO Stores Minute Book 1964-1967
- ELMO Stores Minute Book 1965-1985
- Fine Fare (South) Managers Minute Book 1968-1970
- Fine Fare Press Cuttings related to Bath 1976-1978
- One folder labelled 'Bexhill-on-Sea' 1974-1980
- One large album of press cuttings
- One folder of minutes for Charter Restaurants Ltd, Allied Merchandising Services Ltd, ELMO Stores Ltd, Fine Fare Ltd.
- One folder containing copies of photographs of shop fronts and interiors c.1800s-1900s, photocopies of articles and newspaper clippings related to supermarkets |
| AdminHistory | Somerfield plc was a UK based chain of supermarket and food retail outlets which was taken over by the Co-operative Group in 2009. The origins of the company can be traced to 1875 when a grocery store was opened by J H Mills in Bristol. In 1900 J H Mills became a limited company with 12 stores and in 1950 was turned into Gateway, when a Bristol finance house, Tyndall, became the major shareholder. The 14 J H Mills shops were then converted to become self-service type supermarkets. In 1964 Frank Dee took over the wholesaler which was part of the original Mills company. In 1970 Garfield Weston's Associated Foods purchased the Frank Dee chain and it eventually became part of the Linfood Holdings Group. In 1977 Gateway was taken over by Linfood Holdings Limited increasing the number of Gateway stores to 100 throughout the country. By 1983, Linfood Holdings was renamed The Dee Corporation, and this company in turn absorbed other retail chains, including International, Lennons, and Fine Fare. In 1988 The Dee Corporation was renamed The Gateway Corporation. The first Somerfield store was launched in 1990, with the new format positioned upmarket from Gateway and designed to compete more directly with the stores of rivals J Sainsbury plc, Tesco PLC, and Safeway plc. When the company was taken over by the Co-operative group in 2009 the name was phased out. |
| Publication Note | The collection has been used by Professor Gareth Shaw (University of Exeter) for a number of journal papers including: G. Shaw and A. Alexander, ‘Interlocking Directorates and the Knowledge Transfer of Supermarket Retail Techniques from North America to Britain’, 'International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research', 1G (3) (2006): 375-394; G. Shaw ‘Transferring a Retail Innovation : The early stages of Supermarket Development in Post-War Britain’, 'Economic History Yearbook', 2005/2 (2005): 57-70; Shaw, G., Curth, L. and Alexander, A, 'Promoting retail innovation: knowledge flows during the emergence of self-service and supermarket retailing in Britain', 'Environment and Planning', A 37 (5) (2005): 805-821; Shaw, G., Curth, L. and Alexander, A, ‘Selling Self-service and the Supermarket: the Americanisation of Food Retailing in Britain 1945-1960’, 'Business History', 46 (2004): 568-580. It has also been used by Gareth Shaw for a series of Leverhulme, AHRC and British Academy projects. |