List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom

Tesco are the largest supermarket chain in the United Kingdom.

This is a list of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. Grocery sales in the UK are dominated by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. These "Big Four" had a combined share of 75.6 percent of the UK grocery market in the 12 weeks ending 1 November 2009.

The Co-operative Group is now the fifth largest food retailer in the UK, operating mainly smaller supermarkets and convenience stores, followed by Waitrose in sixth place.

Marks and Spencer, Booths and Waitrose are the most upmarket national supermarket chains (although the former is also the UK's largest clothing retailer, and thus is often not perceived as a supermarket).

Premier Supermarkets, a subsidiary of Express Dairies, opened UK's first supermarket in Streatham, South London in 1951.

List of current UK supermarket chains

Supermarket	Image	Founded/Came to UK	Owned by	Market Share	Information
Aldi		1989	Aldi Süd GmbH	3.5	No frills supermarket
Asda		1949	Wal-Mart through subsidiary Corinth Services Ltd	17.5	Founded by a group of Yorkshire farmers
Booths		1847			North west of England and Yorkshire
Budgens		1872	Musgrave Group		Found in England and Wales, with stores up to 10,000 square feet (930 m2)
Centra		1960	Irish private company		Founded 1960 as 'VG.' Irish chain with stores in Northern Ireland
Co-op,* and The Co-operative Food			Various Co-op societies	6.9	Identities shared by about 20 retail co-operatives, including: The Co-operative Group (the largest, with 5.4 percent market share) East of England Co-operative Society Midcounties Co-operative Midlands Co-operative Society Scotmid see also The Co-operative Group#List of corporate members
Costcutter		1986	Nisa-Today's		Symbol group and convenience store
Eurospar		2009
Farmfoods		1955
Filco Foods		1956			Welsh Based supermarket founded in Llantwit Major
Haldanes		2009			First four stores opened in Scotland
Iceland		1970		2.1	Indirectly controlled by Baugur Group of Iceland; first store opened at Oswestry, Shropshire in 1970.
Lidl		1994	Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG	2.5	No frills supermarket
Londis		1959	Musgrave Group		Symbol group and a convenience store
Mace			Palmer and Harvey		Irish owned franchise symbol group and a convenience store
Marks & Spencer		1884	Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange		Clothing and food retailer
Morrisons		1899	Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange	11.7	Fourth biggest supermarket in the UK, over 420 stores
Nisa-Today's		1977	UK private company		Retailers' co-operative and symbol group
Ocado		2002			Online only, partnership with Waitrose
Pak Supermarkets					Based in Birmingham, targets British Asian market
Sainsbury's		1869	Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange	16.7	Superstores as well as 'Local' and 'Central' sites
SuperValu			Irish private company		Irish chain with supermarkets in Northern Ireland
SPAR					Symbol group
Tesco		1919	Publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange	29.9	Including 'Extra', 'Superstores', 'Metro', 'Express' and 'Homeplus' outlets. UK's largest non-food retailer
Together					Supermarket that gives money away to help education throughout the UK
UGO		2011			Supermarket which is run by Haldanes replacing certain Netto stores in the UK
Waitrose		1904	John Lewis Partnership	4.3
Whole Foods Market		2004			An organic supermarket with one store in London, plus owns several Fresh & Wild stores in the South-East

List of defunct UK supermarket chains

These supermarkets are either no longer trading, have been renamed, or have been taken over and rebranded.

Supermarket	Image	Founded/Came to UK	Fate	Closed	Notes
Aberness			Bought by Somerfield	2000	Scottish convenience chain
Alldays			Bought by the Co-operative Group
All 'Ours			Merged with Premier Stores		Symbol group within the Moffat company
Bejam		1968	Bought by Iceland	1989	Frozen Foods
Bells Stores			Bought by Sainsbury's, brandered as Sainsbury's at Bells before being converted to Sainsbury's Local	2004	Small chain of 54 convenience stores in the North East England
Bishops			Bought by Budgens	1984	63 stores in South East England
BP Safeway			Dissolved following Safeway takeover by Morrisons		Partnership between BP plc and Safeway, listed as Equinox retailing. Some stores now Tesco Express
Carrefour		1970s	UK business sold to Gateway/Somerfield, then later to Asda	1990
Capital Freezer Centres			Now owned by Farmfoods
Circle K			Merged with Alldays
County Stores			Sold to Gateway, converted to Somerfield	1990
Crazy Prices			Bought by Tesco		ABF owned Northern Ireland group
Healds Day & Nite			Bought by Tesco
David Greig			Bought by Somerfield
Europa			Bought by Tesco		Presence in central London
Fairway			Bought by Gateway
Fine Fare		1956	Bought by Gateway	1986
Food Giant			Bought by Kwik Save
FreshXpress		2007	Administration in 2008, liquidated in 2009	2009	Smaller stores of former Kwik Save chain. Bought out by management team led by Brendan Murtagh
Galbraith supermarkets		1894	Bought by Allied Suppliers, then Argyll Group		Scottish chain
Gateway Foodmarkets		1950	Rebranded as Somerfield	1992
Select & Save			Bought by Costcutter
Grandways			Some stores sold to Argyll Group for their Presto chain and Kwik Save, remainder renamed Jacksons	1992/3	Regional in Yorkshire
GT Smith			Bought by Co-operative Group	2002	Regional in West Yorkshire
Hillards			Bought by Tesco
Hintons			Bought by Argyll Foods to become part of Presto		Mainly in North East England and Yorkshire
Irwin's Stores			Bought by Tesco
International			Bought by Gateway
Jackson's			Bought by Sainsbury's	2004	Regional in Yorkshire and North Midlands
Key Markets			Bought by Gateway
Kwik Save		1959	Bought by Somerfield group 1998. Smaller stores sold to BTTF, after administration smaller stores became FreshXpress	2007	Smaller stores sold to BTTF and converted to FreshXpress, larger converted to Somerfield or leased to others by Somerfield
Laws			Bought by Wm Low for £7.1 million		Chain of supermarkets focused on North East England
Lennons			Bought by Dee Group		Part of Key Market. Rebranded part of Gateway chain when Dee took Gateway over
Liptons		1871	Bought by Allied Suppliers		Converted to Presto or Lo-Cost stores
Local Plus			Bought by the Co-operative Group
Mac Fisheries			Bought by Dee Group	1978	Wet fish shops closed
Mainstop			Acquired by Morrisons	1981
Morning, Noon & Night			Bought by Scotmid
Netto		1990	Bought by Asda in 2010 for £778M from Dansk Supermarked Group. 147 stores were rebranded in 2011 as Asda local stores. The remaining 47 stores have been sold off to other companies such as Morrisons and new convenience store UGO and other retailers due to competition laws	0.8	Was a no frills supermarket. On 30 September 2011, Netto UK ceased trading.
Normans supermarkets			Bought by Plymco
Normid			Rebranded Co-op		Was owned by United Co-operatives
Norco			Rebranded Co-op		Aberdeen based co-operative society
One Stop			Bought by Tesco
Premier Supermarkets			Bought by Mac Fisheries	1965	Subsidiary of Express Dairies, opened UK's first supermarket in Streatham, South London in 1951. Sold after losing out on purchase of Irwin's stores to Tesco
Presto		1977	After buying out Safeway, all stores were converted to Safeway.	1998
PriceRite
Quality Fare			Bought by the Co-operative Group
Rainbow			Discontinued, rebranded as parent Co-op
Richway Supermarkets					Retail chain operating in South of England and the Isle of Wight
Safeway (UK)		1962	Bought by Morrisons	2005	Safeway Compact stores sold to Somerfield. Still trading under Safeway in Channel Islands
Sainsbury's Savacentre		1977	Discontinued, Rebranded Sainsbury's	2005
7-Eleven			Taken over by Budgens		Convenience Store chain
Shop Rite		1972	Bought by Kwik Save	1994	Discount supermarket chain
Somerfield		1865	Purchase agreed by the Co-operative Group on 16 July 2008 for £1.56bn; many larger stores have been sold off and smaller stores rebranded to Co operative  b	2010
Stewarts Supermarket Limited			Bought by Tesco		ABF owned Northern Ireland group
Supernational			Bought by Gateway
Templeton supermarkets		1880	Bought by Allied Suppliers then Argyll Group		Scottish chain, rebranded as Presto
VG			Bought by Alldays
Victor Value			Bought by Tesco	1968/1986	Independent chain. Larger stores were rebranded as Tesco, remaining sold to Bejam in 1986
Wm Low			Bought by Tesco		Presence in Scotland and northern England

See also

• Kantar Worldpanel - UK grocery market share figures
• For supermarkets worldwide see List of supermarkets