Trivia: Retail/food chains that don’t cover the entire UK

[richw]

Warrens is mostly in Cornwall, with a few in Devon and Somerset, plus one in Merthyr Tydfi

The Merthyr branch is connected to their tie in with Trago Mills.

Did TJ Hughes have many shops outside of northern England? It’s closed now so I can’t check, but I don’t recall seeing any branches outside of “Yorkshire”/ “Lancashire”

They had a store in Plymouth in the former Littlewoods shop.
When they closed it became a sports direct

 

[Mojo]

Yep. There's maybe some 30 or so 'Leyland SDM' (Specialist Decorators' Merchants) outlets, the most Northerly of which, I think, is located in Finchley.

There’s 32 according to their website. None in Finchley but the shop in Kingston is most certainly an outlier in terms of distance from Zone 1.

 

[SteveM70]

TJ Hughes had a branch in Coventry, in what was previously the Owen Owen’s shop. It’s now a Primark I think

 

[Mojo]

Did TJ Hughes have many shops outside of northern England? It’s closed now so I can’t check, but I don’t recall seeing any branches outside of “Yorkshire”/ “Lancashire”

They had one in Bristol (technically South Gloucestershire) on the Abbey Wood Retail Park. The whole building was formerly a Woolworths “Big W” which was split in two with one part becoming just an ordinary Woolworths and the remaining part becoming TJ Hughes.

 

[Starmill]

Agreed. They would never get the buying terms they can obtain through tCG but the independents also like to fiercely guard their indeopendence!

There are some really interesting shops which must have Cooperative Group contracts for supply judging by the contents of their shelves, including South Manchester's Unicorn Grocery who operate just a single shop, and several shops run in University student's unions.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

TJ Hughes had a branch in Coventry, in what was previously the Owen Owen’s shop. It’s now a Primark I think

T J Hughes had various outlets, most of which were closed in 2011. Coventry re-opened in 2013 but has since closed again. Just the ones in post #145 are still open.

 

[Hardcastle]

T J Hughes had various outlets, most of which were closed in 2011. Coventry re-opened in 2013 but has since closed again. Just the ones in post #145 are still open.

They had one in Dumfries Kidderminster & the one in Belfast was open about a year before they went into administration. Before being reenacted.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

They had one in Dumfries Kidderminster & the one in Belfast was open about a year before they went into administration. Before being reenacted.

Dumfries, Kidderminster and Belfast branches of T J Hughes all closed 2011.

This was some 12 years ago.

Don't believe any of these three ever re-opened, did they?

P.S. To get the thread back on-topic, we are still discussing retail chains which (currently) have at least 10 branches, but are all or mostly concentrated within one area of the UK, aren't we?

 

[Hardcastle]

No none ever reopened now let's get back on topic as stated.

 

[AY1975]

Believe T J Hughes is still trading, albeit in a much reduced capacity after going into administration a decade or so ago and numerous branch closures.

Currently has some 13 branches open, which are located in Glasgow, Clydebank, Cumbernauld, Preston, Bootle, Liverpool, St. Helens, Widnes, Bury, Durham, Newcastle, Hartlepool and, for some reason, Maidstone.

I presume you mean Bootle, Merseyside rather than Bootle, Cumbria, and Bury, Greater Manchester (historically Bury, Lancs) rather than Bury St Edmunds!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

I presume you mean Bootle, Merseyside rather than Bootle, Cumbria, and Bury, Greater Manchester (historically Bury, Lancs) rather than Bury St Edmunds!

Indeed. Also, since you're asking, their Newcastle store is in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, rather than in Staffordshire.

 

[DarloRich]

Until recently I would have said Greggs was an example of a regional company ( they were certainly ubiquitous in the north east growing up) however I note from some background reading that they have been expanding since the 1970's

Greggs isn't a Bakery it dropped that part as it's stores are just a re-heating facility. It's no more a Bakery than Subway.

but sells much nicer products - even if they don't sell stotties anymore.

 

[GusB]

Until recently I would have said Greggs was an example of a regional company ( they were certainly ubiquitous in the north east growing up) however I note from some background reading that they have been expanding since the 1970's

but sells much nicer products - even if they don't sell stotties anymore.

Unfortunately, Gregg's has reached these parts; there is a small concession in a Londis store at one of the petrol stations in town. Mind you, that's reason enough to avoid it!

 

[DarloRich]

Unfortunately, Gregg's has reached these parts; there is a small concession in a Londis store at one of the petrol stations in town. Mind you, that's reason enough to avoid it!

philistine

 

[Steddenm]

Greggs are slowly penetrating Ireland now as well with some concessions opening in Applegreen service areas on the motorways and oddly being sold at a Circle K store in the city centre (but think these are cooked on site using the Iceland frozen range as they're disgusting)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Believe that Greggs now has well over 2,000 + outlets, located far and wide across the U.K., and with revenues of £1bln +, have to say that they would seem to be no longer a business that meets the criteria originally set by the O.P. for this particular thread.

 

[route101]

Greggs are slowly penetrating Ireland now as well with some concessions opening in Applegreen service areas on the motorways and oddly being sold at a Circle K store in the city centre (but think these are cooked on site using the Iceland frozen range as they're disgusting)

Is Greggs a well known brand in Ireland? Is there an Irish version of Greggs?

I remmember seeing a Greggs in Brussels.

 

[Altrincham]

I worked in London at various intervals in the late 1990’s / early 2000’s, and I recall a very good corner shop chain called Portland Food and Wine. I’m sure that there were a number of branches, and only confined to London. It was a very good shop as I remember, with quite a good selection of deli-type foods, and not overly expensive. I never saw them anywhere else in the UK.

As mentioned in an earlier post, historically Sainsburys didn’t seem to have much of a presence in the north, possibly until the 1980’s. I remember Sainsburys opening in Altrincham in 1985 and was very much thought of as a southern supermarket. Up until then, the largest supermarkets that Altrincham had were high street supermarkets, notably Caters which then became Presto’s, which ultimately became Kwik Save.

Throughout the 1970’s there had been a Tescos on the precinct in Altrincham, which then turned into a supermarket called Cordon Bleu, which I recall being a small chain.

 

[Steddenm]

Is Greggs a well known brand in Ireland? Is there an Irish version of Greggs?

I remmember seeing a Greggs in Brussels.

Greggs wasn't well known in Ireland and still isn't. It became known because of TikTok videos and comedians etc talking about it on British TV shows.

The Greggs x Primark (Penneys) range isn't available in RoI.

At the moment they have two stores in the RoI, but as I said earlier it seems to be the Iceland frozen products cooked in store and sold in plain packaging.

There isn't really an equivalent of Greggs in Ireland but most of the convenience store chains (Circle K, Supervalu, Centra, Costcutter, Spar, Eurospar etc) all mostly have a hot food counter (and deli) but the ranges are completely different.

I've not seen a "bake" or "pasty" in the RoI, but have seen sausage rolls and the Irish jambon are very popular.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Greggs has, I think, some 17 outlets in Northern Ireland, mostly in the Belfast area.

 

[High Dyke]

Lincolnshire Co-op has stores in both Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, but nowhere else. Equally, not all Co-op stores in Lincolnshire are theirs.

 

[WatcherZero]

Having one/small cluster of random store in a different part of the country, particularly with bakery/bread chains, often came about when they bought up small rival bakeries supplying supermarkets/retail (often going on to become dedicated single product production lines or to shutdown) which themselves previously operated a company shop selling their own range of bakery products.

 

[TT-ONR-NRN]

Has anyone mentioned Greenhalgh’s? A wonderful bakers with branches all around Lancs and Greater Manchester, quite a few near to my nan’s house near Bolton, but sadly none down south!

 

[Mojo]

Asda and Morrisons and Iceland are very rare in the South East England area.

It’s intresting your observations that they aren’t common in the South East region outside of London because inside of the urban parts of London, they appear quite common on high streets and even appear on random parades of shops such as at East Acton. I suppose the fact they ended up occupying 18 former Woolworths stores in London (the only chain that took on more branches was Poundland) probably helps.

I wonder how the expansion of Lidl (and Aldi came out this week saying they want to double their London presence) will affect them - for fresh food Iceland is actually very expensive and I will go to Waitrose to buy these items because they are cheaper than Iceland.

I suppose this discussion is probably for the Supermarket thread!

 

[DelayRepay]

There's the GT News chain, which I think mainly operates in South Yorkshire/North Derbyshire.

They used to have lots of shops in villages and town centres. Most have closed or turned into Spar type convenience stores, but the chain still exists.

 

[Altrincham]

Has anyone mentioned Greenhalgh’s? A wonderful bakers with branches all around Lancs and Greater Manchester, quite a few near to my nan’s house near Bolton, but sadly none down south!

Greenhalgh’s opened a branch in Altrincham, which ran sometime in the 2000’s / 2010’s but unfortunately it closed. It was a real shame that it closed, especially as it was the first shop I had come across that sold Butter Pies.

 

[Geochemwill]

How about Martins bakery shops? According to their website there are 24 of them within Greater Manchester.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Bakeries seem to be a popular candidate for this thread. Hadfield's for example have 14 stores, mostly in and around Huddersfield, with the furthest-flung branch being in Cleckheaton.

 

[PsychoMouse]

6 Pages and not a mention of Tony Macaroni. For shame

 

[185143]

I've always thought of Home Bargains was mainly just a Northern thing, or "Home and Bargain" if you're a Scouser.

But I went in one on the outskirts of Romford the other day, and I've seen one from either a SouthEastern train or station somewhere too, possibly Sittingbourne.

Think that's the first Home Bargains I've been in South of around Nottingham.