David Greig

David Greig was initially a grocery store that grew to become one of the burgeoning supermarket chains in the United Kingdom. The original business was founded by the Greig family of Hornsey, North London. During the seventies, the business was first purchased by Wrensons, a Midlands-based grocery chain before the combined group took on the David Greig name. The combined company was purchased by British food conglomerate Fitch Lovell and was eventually merged into the group's supermarket chain Key Markets. The original David Greig company The David Greig chain is considered to have been established in 1870, when the wife of a Hornsey cabinet maker of Scots birth, Mary Greig opened a small provisions shop at 32 High Street, Hornsey. By 1881 her son David Greig had joined her in the business and described himself as a 'provision dealer' in the census of that year. The business thrived and wishing to expand beyond Hornsey, Greig opened his first shop at 54-58 Atlantic Road, Brixton in 1888, which he and his wife, Hannah Susan Deacock lived above. Around 1890 a second shop was opened at nearby Loughborough Junction, near Brixton. This was probably the shop at 232 Coldharbour Lane where a wooden 'David Greig' fascia with 'Brilliant cut' gilded lettering in the distinctive serif typeface of the chain, was uncovered in 2020. In 1895, David Greig was accused of selling margarine as butter. The company continued to expand with stores across the South of England, including Exmouth Market, London, Windsor, Basingstoke and Clacton. The company employed the services of architect Philip Woollatt Home to design the company's stores. In 1928 the company opened a new headquarters at 145 Waterloo Road, London, also called the Scotch House. John and Mary Sainsbury having opened their first grocery shop in Holborn one year earlier and were initially friends. However, a deep personal rivalry developed between the two families, because of acrimonious feelings about the Greigs' alleged betrayal of a verbal agreement regarding the purchasing of sites for development. In 1932, David Greig opened the first self-service service grocery store in the UK at Turnpike Lane, Hornsey, but the store although a success, was closed down after 8 months of the experiment. In 1958, David Greig died at the age of 86, with his son David Ross Greig running the business. In 1962 the company merged with Colebrook & Co, a chain of butchers and fishmongers.