Moran & Cato

Moran & Cato was the largest chain of grocery stores in Australia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.^[1]

Moran & Cato

Former Moran & Cato store (1940)
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Retail
Founded	1881; 144 years ago (1881)
Founder	Thomas Edwin Moran Frederick John Cato
Defunct	1969; 56 years ago (1969)
Fate	Acquired by Permewan Wright Limited
Headquarters	Melbourne , Australia
Number of locations	164 stores (1969)
Area served	New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria
Products	Groceries
Number of employees	1,000 (1935)
Parent	Permewan Wright Limited

History

The partnership was established in Melbourne on 24 July 1882 when Frederick John Cato joined his cousin Thomas Edwin Moran who ran two grocery stores in Fitzroy and Carlton.^[2] Moran died in 1890 at the age of 39 and was succeeded by his widow.^[2] The following years saw expansion into Tasmania and New South Wales and incorporation of the company in 1912.^[2]

In 1962, it was still the largest independent retail grocery chain and wholesaler in Australia and a competitor to Coles Supermarkets and Woolworths Supermarkets, and had largely converted its stores to the self-service model in 1957–1961.^[3]

The company was taken over by competitor Permewan Wright Limited for A$11.6 million (equivalent to A$170.2 million in 2024) in 1969.^[4][5]

Operations

By 1935 the company was employing nearly one thousand people and had about 120 branches in Victoria and Tasmania and 40 in New South Wales.^[2]