Early history

A year after Welwyn Garden City was founded, Welwyn Stores opened there as an all-encompassing department store as well as a social hub owned by the Welwyn Garden City Company, the business formed by Ebenezer Howard, the founder of the garden city movement.^[1][2] The business would open further branches in Hertfordshire selling groceries.^[3] Welwyn Garden City Company refused to allow any other retailer in the new town until 1936, when the Co-op were allowed to open a branch.^[4] The business opened the newly purpose-built Welwyn Department Store in 1939 to replace the former Welwyn Stores.^[5] In 1948, Welwyn Garden City Company transferred the development of the town to the Welwyn Garden City Development Corporation under the New Towns Act 1946, with the remaining parts of the business transferring to the Howardsgate Trust in 1951.^[6] Fine Fare was opened as a single supermarket in 1951, as an offshoot of the Welwyn Department Store.^[7]

Arrival of Weston

In December 1954, Garfield Weston's Allied Bakeries business, the forerunner of Associated British Foods, purchased from Howardsgate Trust the Fine Fare Supermarket, the Welwyn Store grocery branches and the bakery business owned by the Trust.^[8][9] In 1955, Allied Bakeries entered an agreement with Cooper & Co, a Scottish grocery retailer, purchasing shares in the business but with Coopers maintaining its management,^[10] while in the same year they also added the North London department store business of B.B. Evans, purchasing the business from Littlewoods through its retail subsidiary Howardsgate Holdings, and completed the purchase of the Welwyn Department Store (and its subsidiary, the ladies' fashion store Cresta) from the Howardsgate Trust, and added the south east grocery multiple, Forrest Stores.^[11][12] By 1958, Howardsgate Holdings had added the 200+ stores of Joseph Burton & Sons to the business, as well as 100 stores of The London & Newcastle Tea Company and the Midlands & South West based Fearis Group, and the 30 grocery stores of Clarks in South East London. At the time, Howardsgate controlled over 600 stores, with Fine Fare accounting for 50+ grocery stores and 18 supermarkets.^[13] Joseph Burton & Co had started as a greengrocer in Nottingham during 1858^[14] expanded rapidly and was incorporated and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1900.^[15] The business operated under various names including the India & China Tea Stores; Valentine Stores; Shaw Brothers; Leckeby's; Swansons and J L Allcock.^[16]

In January 1959, the company won a court case against Brighton Corporation, which had insisted that its outlets closed on Wednesday afternoons under the Shops Act 1950.^[17] In the same the company disposed of the North London department store B.B.Evans, to the Harrow Stores group, and the Cresta ladies fashion stores to Debenhams.^[18] In 1959, multiple grocery retailers like Fine Fare only had 10% of the whole market.^[19] The company went on a expansion plan in the late 50s and early 60s, and by 1962 had opened 236 supermarkets across the Fine Fare, Coopers and Burton brands with a plan to open further supermarkets.^[20][21] In 1960, Garfield Weston brought in 500 Canadian supermarket clerks to train the management as the business struggled to find the required business leaders.^[22]

The 60s bust and boom

In 1963, with the company struggling with its rapid expansion and not having enough junior managers, Garfield Weston stopped the supermarket building plan, with 46 of the stores not opened being sold or leased to rivals, like Tesco.^{[23][24][25][26]} Soon after it was reported that business had made a net loss of $3.7 million to the year ending 30 March 1963, with many criticising the company of poor marketing.^[25] In June 1963, Howardsgate Holdings sold 51% of the business to DICOA, a holding company owned by Weston's principal Canadian investment business, Whittington Investments. The deal saw DICOA (Diversified Companies of America) pay $11.7 million for the stake plus a further $17 million advance to cover some of Fine Fare's loans. As part of the deal, George Metcalfe, the boss of Weston's Canadian grocery chain Loblaws joined as chair of Howardsgate Holdings.^[25] The company at the time had 275 supermarkets and 375 grocery stores operating under such names as John Shental; Albert Hausen; L & N Stores; Fred Brown; Boyce Adams and Arthur Davy & Sons.^[27][28] Welwyn Department Store was not part of the sale of Howardsgate Holdings and was transferred directly to Associated British Foods.^[29] The DICOA deal took the huge losses off Associated British Foods consolidated balance sheet.^[25]

Soon after joining, Metcalf introduced Sperry & Hutchinson Pink Saving Stamps, which were already given out at Loblaws in Canada,^[30] and stated he would restart the supermarket rebuilding programme with the aim to open 1,000 supermarkets.^[31] However Sainsbury's joined forces with other grocery firms to form the Distributive Trades Alliance to protest by stop stocking Associated British Foods Sunblest bread brand, and by 1964 Fine Fare cancelled their contract with Sperry & Hutchinson, though Cooper stores in Scotland continued.^[32][33][34] By 1965, the management team were still trying to turn the business around, with some stores being turned into a discount store Busy B, while they realised that 1 in 10 were uneconomical and would need to be remodelled and open under new names.^[34] Another plan was to turn the company into three focused brand, Cooper for the top end of the market, Fine Fare as the middle market store and Busy B for the discount market.^[35] Many of the Canadian management team resigned that summer as the strain took it's toll as they struggled to turn the business around.^[34][36] The company, the largest supermarket chain in Europe at the time, made a pre-tax profit of just £85,000 in 1965, while rival Tesco made £2.5 million.^[37][26] One of their replacements appointed by Garfield Weston was James Gulliver. Gulliver, 35, had worked as a consultant for Associated British Foods construction subsidiary and impressed Weston enough to offer him an management role at Fine Fare.^[38]

In 1966, George Weston Limited, another Weston company, bought DICOA, clearing the $18.7m debt that had occurred when the business had been bought.^[34] The company name was changed from Howardsgate Holdings to Fine Fare (Holdings) Ltd.^[39] Gulliver meanwhile was introducing a scheme called Management by Objective, splitting the central management structure into four regional groups, creating own brand products and revising operating processes from warehousing to shelf stocking.^[34] In 1967, Associated British Foods repurchased 31% of the shares owned by DICOA in Fine Fare for $23,376,000, adding to the 49% it still owned.^[40] Gulliver's changes was seeing improvements, and in 1967 he was made chairman of Fine Fare.^[41] The company continued to grow, purchasing the 28 store East Anglian chain of Elmo for £1m,^[42] and opening new supermarkets like Preston in the St. John's Shopping Centre.^[43] The remaining 20% of Fine Fare (Holdings) were purchased from George Weston in 1968 for $2,243,000 by Associated British Foods, making it a wholly owned subsidiary for the first time since 1963.^[44] In the same year, Fine Fare purchased the northern based grocery business of Great Universal Stores, William Cusson, with its supermarket subsidiary Carline, who operated 40 supermarkets.^[45]

Gulliver would continued to lead the business until 1972.^[41] Seven years after the takeover by Associated British Foods, the turnover had grown from £75 million to £200 million.^[46]

In 1976, Fine Fare bought 47 stores of the East Anglian based Downsway supermarket chain, which was owned by the Vestey family business, Union International Group.^[47] Other chains purchased included Mercury Market (North West based)^[48]

The business was regularly listed as third in market share behind Sainsbury's and Tesco, and had stores nationwide. They also owned the Melias,^[49] and Shoppers Paradise chains of convenience and discount food stores,^[50] and moved into the burgeoning DIY industry with their Fix and Fit stores (sold to WHSmith Do It All in 1986).^[51] In 1983, Fine Fare became Britain's first supermarket to sell organic foods.^[52]

In June 1986, ABF sold the company to The Dee Corporation (subsequently known as Somerfield).^[53] All Dee Corporation's newly acquired stores were then either rebranded as Gateway Foodmarkets or closed, meaning the Fine Fare name (including Shoppers Paradise and Melias) disappeared by the end of the 1980s.