UGO was a chain of

convenience store A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ti ...

s in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

owned by the Haldanes Group and was started in January 2011. UGO Nuneaton

It acquired twenty mid size Netto supermarkets in the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and

Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

of England from the chain

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

, and turned them into UGO stores; these stores were in:

Athersley Athersley is a village in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England. History The site now occupied by the estate was once farmland and woodland. A large area from Lee Lane was known as Athersley Wood, which stretched nearly ...

Ashington Ashington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, with a population of 27,864 at the 2011 Census. It was once a centre of the coal mining industry. The town is north of Newcastle upon Tyne, west of the A189 and bordered to the ...

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

Boothferry Boothferry is a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire in England. It is situated on the north bank of the River Ouse where the A614 road crosses the river. It is about north-west of Goole. Boothferry is split between civil parishes; areas ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Br ...

, Bury,

Carcroft Carcroft is a rural village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the village is roughly six miles north-north west of Doncaster. At the time of ...

Eston Eston is a Village in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland, North Yorkshire, England. The ward covering the area (as well as Lackenby, Lazenby and Wilton) had a population of 7,005 at the 2011 census. It is part of Greater Eston, which includ ...

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County D ...

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

(two stores), Kirkby, Lundwood,

Monk Bretton Monk Bretton is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley in South Yorkshire, England. It lies approximately two miles north-east from Barnsley town centre. History Monk Bretton has been a settlement since medieval times and was origin ...

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton ...

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterf ...

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

, Stanley and

Wavertree Wavertree is a district of Liverpool, England. It is a ward of Liverpool City Council, and its population at the 2011 census was 14,772. Located to the south and east of the city centre, it is bordered by various districts and suburbs such as ...

. Additionally, the Haldanes stores in

Biddulph Biddulph is a town in Staffordshire, England, north of Stoke-on-Trent and south-east of Congleton, Cheshire. Origin of the name Biddulph's name may come from Anglo-Saxon/Old English ''bī dylfe'' = "beside the pit or quarry". It may also ...

(Staffordshire) and

Broxburn Broxburn ( gd, Srath Bhroc, IPA: �s̪ɾaˈvɾɔʰk is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, on the A89 road, from the West End of Edinburgh, from Edinburgh Airport and to the north of Livingston. Etymology The name Broxburn is a corruption ...

(Scotland) were converted to the UGO branding; these two stores remained in the ownership of Haldanes Stores, another company in the Haldanes Group. The UGO strategy was to double Netto's existing core range of branded grocery lines to around 3,000 more items, plus more fresher bakery items from the Haldanes acquired ''Woodhead Bakery''. UGO have appeared twice on television in the United Kingdom. It appeared on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

's '' Come Dine with Me'' when a contestant was filmed shopping for the programme in the store in Blackburn, and appeared on Channel 4's ''

Facejacker ''Facejacker'' is a Channel 4 comedy series which started on 16 April 2010. It follows the similar show '' Fonejacker''. Kayvan Novak adopts various disguises (with the aid of prosthetics), including several characters heard in ''Fonejacker''. ...

'', which aired on 27 March 2012 at 10pm, in the Nuneaton store, when the self service checkout was 'taken over'. In June 2011, Haldanes Stores went into administration, and its stores closed, including the two stores branded as UGO. In February 2012, UGO Stores was itself placed in administration, and the chain was bought by

Poundstretcher Poundstretcher (previously styled as £-stretcher and also previously known as ...instore) is a chain of discount stores operating in the United Kingdom. It is based in Kirby Muxloe, England. History Poundstretcher was established in 1981 b ...

, in a pre-pack sale, with 18 of the twenty stores to become part of the Poundstretcher chain and the other two (Nuneaton, Hull) to close as Poundstretcher already had stores nearby. In January 2021, the last remaining vacant Ugo Supermarket space in

was purchased after sitting empty for nine years, by independent Midlands-based family-owned retailer, 365 Bargains.

References

{{Authority control Convenience stores British companies established in 2011 Retail companies established in 2011 Retail companies disestablished in 2012 Defunct retail companies of the United Kingdom Retail companies of the United Kingdom Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom Defunct supermarkets of the United Kingdom