International Tea Co. Stores was a leading chain of

grocers The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the 110 Livery Companies of the City of London and ranks second in order of precedence. The Grocers' Company was established in 1345 for merchants occupied in the trade of grocer and is one of the Gr ...

based in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. It was an original constituent of the

FT 30 The FT 30 (''FT Ordinary Index'' or ''FTOI'', not "FTSE 30") is a now rarely used index that is similar to the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As an index of stocks to represent the real trends on the market, the FT 30 has been superseded by the FTS ...

index of leading companies listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...

History

The business was founded in 1878 by Hudson Kearley (later Viscount Devonport) and Gilbert Augustus Tonge as the International Tea Co., with the objective of selling tea direct to consumers rather than through wholesalers. International's main blenders were Ridgways, which became part of the group with the acquisition of Star Supply Stores in 1929. Soon, most towns in

Southern England Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes ...

had their own International Tea Co. store, as immortalised in a verse from John Betjeman's poem ''Myfanwy'':

''Smooth down the Avenue glitters the bicycle,''
''Black-stockinged legs under navy blue serge,''
''
Home and Colonial Home and Colonial Stores was once one of the United Kingdom's largest retail chains. Its formation of a vast chain of retail stores in the late 1920s is seen as the first step in the development of a UK food retail market dominated by a small num ...
, Star, International'',
''Balancing bicycle leant on the verge.''

International Tea Co. Stores fell out of the FT 30 index in 1947 to reflect market developments since the index was originally compiled in 1935.

Demise of the business

The company was subsequently re-branded International Stores and was acquired by BAT Industries in 1972. In 1973, the Price Rite chain was purchased, adding stores to the International brand. This was further increased by the purchase of Wallis Supermarkets in 1977, which added a further 100 stores. After acquiring the large footprint Mac Food Centres from

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy dri ...

's closure of

Mac Fisheries Mac Fisheries was a branded United Kingdom retail chain of fishmongers, founded by William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, the co-founder with his brother of Lever Brothers, which later merged to become Unilever. Background Isle of Lewis In hi ...

, in 1979, the chain created a new brand, Mainstop, to develop the new superstore division in 1980. However, BAT decided to sell any business that failed to progress and so the company was sold off in chunks. Former Price Rite stores in the south of England were sold off in 1980 to

Fine Fare Fine Fare was a chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom. Their Yellow Pack budget own-label range, introduced in 1980, was the first own brand basic ranges to be introduced in the UK. History The company began as one single supermarket ...

, with the remaining 67 branches sold to

Argyll Foods Argyll Foods plc was the fourth biggest supermarket operator in the United Kingdom, through its acquisitions of a number of smaller supermarkets. In 1987 the company acquired Safeway Inc.'s UK subsidiary and in 1996 it changed its name to Saf ...

in 1982. In 1984, International Stores was sold to the Dee Corporation. The company became the Gateway Corporation in 1988, and then Somerfield plc in 1994.

References

{{Authority control Retail companies established in 1878 Defunct companies based in London Retail companies disestablished in 1984 Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Defunct supermarkets of the United Kingdom