A lost supermarket empire that started in a single back-street shop was once a regular sight on nearly every Manchester high street.
Adsega was formed in 1960 by business partners Martin Green and Henry Seaberg. They began the venture running a small grocery shop in Gorton, paying £1 a week in rent and within five years, this turned into 50 stores across the north west with an £8 million turnover.
Pioneers of self-service and price cutting, the budget supermarket chain wasn't afraid to go to war with big retailers to keep prices low for its customers. Its success was built on hard discounting, particularly alcohol, cigarettes - even records and LPs.
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Back in the early '60s, self-service supermarkets allowing customers to browse through aisles of goods which they would then take and pay for at a till were still a novelty. On the Chorlton History blogspot author and historian, Andrew Simpson, recalls a friend telling him about her mum's confusing introduction to self-service shopping at the Adsega store in Chorlton.
A post on the blog says following the opening of the store: "My mother carefully obeyed the sign telling her to take a basket. We had it for years!"
If self-service took a bit of getting used to, it was the chain's price slashing - aimed at providing the cheapest prices for customers - that didn't go down well with some big brands at the time. In its short history, whisky companies, makers of electrical equipment, Cadburys and even Decca Records stopped supplying Adsega stores for selling their goods under the fixed resale prices.
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The chain's growing popularity saw it make waves in the supermarket retail sector and attract the attention of bigger players. In 1964, Nottingham's The Guardian Journal newspaper wrote: "Adsega, which originated in 1960 as an experiment in cut-price groceries, has become one of the biggest independent supermarket chains in the north".
But it was the brand's rapid success and price-cutting ethos that, in the end, brought about an end to its stores on Manchester's streets. With 50 stores across the region by 1965 and another 16 planned, retail behemoth Tesco, who were looking to rapidly expand into the north of England, bought the company for just over £1 million.
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Following the takeover, Tesco's then managing director, Mr Hyman Kreitman, told the Daily Telegraph: "The Adsega chain fits perfectly into our scheme of development for the midlands and north-west, and its acquisition will help to accelerate my declared plan to operate a first class supermarket in every major town in the country."
And with the purchase, across Greater Manchester and the north west, the 'ADSEGA' supermarket signs began to be replaced by the familiar Tesco branding. Despite the chain's brief existence, many Mancunians have fond memories of their local store.
Over the past few years, posts containing photos of local Adsega stores have been uploaded to the popular Facebook nostalgia group We Grew Up In Manchester, prompting many people to take to the comments and share their memories.
Brian Ormrod, said: "My mum and I shopped there every week. I remember they had a revolving display of 45s which were never by the original artists - It was always a disappointment that they never sounded like the originals."
Christine Burns, posted: "I worked there in the '60s as a Saturday girl, bag packing, when it changed to Tesco."
Denise Southworth remembered a certain Adsega employee catching her eye, commenting: "My sister and I thought the guy in the meat department looked like Don Powell of Slade. As we were just silly teenagers at the time [we] used to go in just to look at, whisper, and giggle at him!"
Does Adsega awaken any memories for you? Let us know in the comments section below.
Kerry Dolman remembered her dad giving her a £10 note to do the shopping in her local store, adding: "I don't really remember what I had to buy but I remember being really worried that me and that 10 pound note would get to that supermarket in one piece. This was in the '60s so 10 pounds was a lot of money."
While Brian Cooper, said: "WOW! Adsega, there's a name I haven't heard (and, indeed, had forgotten) for many, many years."
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