Bejam was a British frozen food supermarket chain founded by John Apthorp in 1968, based in Stanmore, London. The business grew to become the biggest frozen food retailer and largest seller of freezers and microwaves in Britain.[1] The business was purchased by smaller rival, Iceland, in a hostile takeover in 1989.
History
The concept of selling only frozen foods was a novel idea in 1968. John Apthorp, worked for E. A. D. Apthorp, his family's firm of potato merchants, which was bought out by the Ross Group in 1968. Apthorp did not like working within the larger organisation, so left and opened a single store in Edgware as Bejam Bulk Buying in 1968 selling frozen foods.[2] The name, Bejam was an acronym for Brian, Eric, John and Milly and Marion, the names of the Apthorp family members.[3][4]