Gateway Corporation
1875 Mr J H Mills opened a small shop in Bristol[1]
1989 Gateway had about 400 stores when it received an unsolicited bid from Isosceles, a financial group put together for the purpose. If successful Isosceles planned to sell the 62 larger supermarkets to Asda and concentrate on the remainder[2]; eventually Isosceles succeeded in winning control[3], sold the Medicare chain of chemists to Kingfisher and 60 larger stores to Asda; plans were being developed to sell the US Hermans chain; the larger of the remaining stores were being rebranded Somerfield Fine Fresh Foods [4]
1991 Sold 42 smaller stores to Kwik Save
1995 The group was renamed Somerfield and was being prepared for flotation which happened in 1996[5].