Victor Value was a London–based value supermarket group, which operated at the lower end of the grocery trade.

It was well represented in low income C2D areas, and was also well represented in market areas of London, such as Chapel Market Islington, Church Street Paddington, and Leyton High Road.

The company was aquired by Tesco in 1968.

In many ways, but not all, it was similar to Tesco, in terms of the company's size, store profile, promotional campaigns, admin systems and managerment structire etc.

VV gave S&H Pink stamps, Tesco gave Green Shield.

VV's head office was within one mile of Tesco's, at Waltjam Cross. Its own brand of goods were marketed under the "Dairyglen" label.

Tesco however had the edge and was advancing more rapidly by opening larger, brighter and better stores, e.g. Feltham, Leicester, and Brixton.

Old Victor Value stores which survive can often be identified by their distinctive blue and white tiled frontage. The Victor Value chain included some former Anthony Jackson Foodfare * outlets, which VV acquired in the early 1960s

In 1968, Victor Value had 217 stores, and was sold to Tesco for £1.75M.

Notes:

Amongst the larger VV branches were Collier Row Romford- (the converted REX cinema): Acton, Edmonton, and Church Street Paddington.

VV was initially rumoured for takeover by Finefare after VV's shares had devalued, however the deal was done with Tesco which almost doubled the number of stores

owned by Tesco. The Cohens owned Tesco, and other Cohens owned Victor Value, but they weren't related. Pundits at the time blamed the failure of VV to properly integrate

Anthony Jackson's Foodfare (acquiredt around 1964) into their business. Evidence of this could be seen at the time of the takeover when some VV stores had customer trolleys

in different shapes and sized, and which were often hard to steer, marked Anthony Jacksons Foodfare, and others with VV. Some goods were pri ced with AJF markers, others with VV. It seemed as if the AJF sign was simply replaced by VV and everything else carried on as usual.

VV dropped S&H Pink stamps virtually overnight in an attempt to recover margin, but sales fell. VV, by doing this, were in breach of contract with the stamp company and a large

settlement was eventually paid to S&H as a result.

Management of VV included branch managers (Manager and Assistant manager in supermarkets), moving up to Area Superviser, and then Rertail Executive.

Some names of Area Supervisers include Vic Webb, William (Bill) Careswell, Arhur Osbourne,, and retail Executives Fred Boakesand Clive Motton, to name a couple.

*Anthony Jacksons Foodfare was a London based supermarket operator run by Sidney Ingram (nephew of Tesco's Jack Cohen). The stores were like food discount bazars and not too dissimilar to the a the layout of Poundand today. They appealed to the C2D market. Windows of the store were often plastered with ads featuring Sidney Ingram's wife Sheila with a strapline "Shopping and Saving with Sheilah" (or words to that effect)

Sidney Ingram tried to sell the company to his uncle (Jack Cohen) who reportedly visited every AJF store, but in the end, Sidney (known for regularly wearing a carnation buttonhole) did the deal with Victor Value. According to some sources in the know, it was Sidney Ingram whoa few years later, approached Jack Cohen of Tesco to make a bid for VV.

Where acquired VV branches were in close proximity of a Tesco, some VV stores were converted to Tesco Home N 'Wear, some closed, and others were, in time, refitted

and launched as Tesco.

The following stores still exist today (as Tesco)

Church Street Paddington (originally an AJF store). Grand opening as tesco in 1969 by celebrity dj Simon Dee.

Goodge Street W1

Coollier Row Romford.

There are likely to be others too!

The final end of VV

In the early 80s, Tesco converted a number of smaller stores to limited range discounters under the VV brand, using barcoding and scanners unlike some of their rivals whose cashiers had to memorise prices. These stores were eventually sold as a package to Bejam, who in turn sold out to Iceland, but the VV chain soon afterwards disappeared as they were integrated into Iceland.

With the beneft of hindsight, one may ask why the VV brand wasn't retained by Tesco as a fighter brand in the discount market, especially when looking at ther success of Aldi and Lidl.. That's hndsight.

References