I’ll be honest ― I had no idea the brand name ASDA stood for anything until recently, when I learned its initials mean “ASquith + DAiries”. 

Turns out Tesco’s name actually predates the store, too; TES came from supplier TE Stockwell’s name, and the Co came from founder Jack Cohen’s surname.

It was first used for the product Tesco Tea. 

And now, another fact to bore my beleaguered partner with ― Londis’ name is a clever combination of abbreviations too. 

What does Londis stand for?

Per the company’s site, the store began in 1959. 

It was made up of a group of “progressive independent retail grocers” who wanted to set up a “fully operational delivered wholesale company owned jointly by the retailers it served.”

So it makes sense that, according to Sky News, the name is actually a contraction of London District Stores.

In 2004, Irish company Musgrave Wholesale bought the brand’s parent company for a pretty inexpensive £31,000. 

To make things even more confusing, the Musgrave Group purchase was separate from Ireland’s most popular version of the store, ADM Londis PLC, which was never bought by Musgrave Wholesale.

Since then, Booker has bought both the Musgrave Group’s version of Londis and their Budgens stores.

Tesco went on to buy Booker in 2018 ― meaning the supermarket giant now also owns the UK version of Londis and Budgens too. 

That means Tesco also owns Premier

Booker also owns Premier, meaning that the brand now belongs to Tesco too.

Additionally, Tesco owns One Stop, data science business Dunnhumby, and food and beverage wholesaler Booker, Investopedia wrote in 2023. 

So, Londis stands for London District Stores but is split between Ireland and the UK (though the British stores were briefly owned and supplied by an Irish company separately). 

Now, Tesco owns the company ― but not ADM Londis PLC, which is a whole other group. 

My head hurts...