Liverpool was once home to a supermarket that prided itself on offering customers "good food made easy".
Somerfield arrived on the scene in 1991 with the first store opening in Nottingham. It wasn’t long before the supermarket chain popped up all over the UK, including right here in Liverpool and Wirral.
The company was first known as Gateway Foodmarkets in the 1960s, later being known simply as Gateway. After a number of acquisitions and restructuring in the company, the Somerfield name and brand was born in 1990.
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In 1998, Somerfield took over Kwik Save in the hope to convert the stores into Somerfields, but this plan was soon abandoned when it became clear the shops weren’t suitable for conversion. 2002 saw Somerfield rebrand with a new logo to create a more contemporary design and feel, and opened several new store formats.
This included Somerfield Essentials and Somerfield Market Fresh stores. The supermarket also introduced new own-brand lines, including the premium "So Good" range, the low fat "Good Intentions" line and a low-price label called "Makes Sense". The aim for the latter was to compete with rival low-cost ranges, such as Tesco Value.
Unfortunately, all Somerfields had closed by the end of 2011 after the company was bought by the Co-operative group. However, during its short two decades, Somerfield had become the sixth biggest supermarket in the UK, according to market research company TNS Worldpanel.
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Throughout its time, Somerfield had various slogans, suggesting it struggled to find the right one that resonated with customers. Before 2001, the supermarket went with "Shopping in the real world", before changing to "Good food made easy" in 2002.
The company tried to squeeze "Somerfield" into the slogan in 2004 with "Somerthing different", but it sadly fell flat, with “A great deal going on!" being adopted in 2006. After two years, "Giving you what you want" was created.
In another attempt to get the supermarket’s name into the slogan, 2007 saw the creation of "Pop in to Somerfield" which lasted three years. Before the supermarket’s permanent closure, "Good with food" was adopted in 2011.
What are your memories of Somerfield supermarkets? Let us know in the comments section below.
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