THE last remaining Henry Healy stores in Glasgow have closed.

THE last remaining Henry Healy stores in Glasgow have closed.

Staff of the famous business were told they had served their last food.

The family-run grocery institution has survived for nearly a century in the heart of Glasgow - reinventing itself as a sandwich and takeaway food chain.

Henry Healy would have celebrated 100 years in the city in just two years.

While company directors Henry Healy and Brian McDaid were refusing to comment on the situation, staff told customers the company had gone into liquidation.

Workers arrived yesterday at the company's last remaining shops, in Stockwell Street and Hope Street, to discover the stores were not going to be opening.

One said: "There was no warning. I am still not completely sure what's happening. All I know is that I haven't got a job."

Even Valerie Healy, wife of Mr Healy and the third company director, was unsure whether the Henry Healy name would still be part of the Glasgow landscape in some form.

"It is one of those things that has kind of tailed off," said Mrs Healy.

"I am not too sure what's going to happen at the end, or if there will be an end.

"He (Mr Healy) is just about to retire. He has tried to keep them going - and not as a supermarket type of place."

Asked if the firm had gone into liquidation, she said: "I don't know."

Mr McDaid said last night: "I am sorry we cannot say anything just now. The situation is not official yet and we have been told we cannot make any comment."

The closure comes a month after it was announced another Scottish institution, Grays the Ironmongers of George Street, Edinburgh, was to close after nearly 200 years of trading. It will remain open until March 2010, around the same time as the retirement of current owner.

Before being hit by the rise of supermarkets, Henry Healy in the 1980s had 30 stores around the city and in the suburbs - specialising in fresh grocery produce.

Twenty-five years later the only evidence of its grocery past is in its Stockwell Street shop but it too diversified to produce sandwiches and takeaway food.

The current proprietor's grandfather, also Henry Healy, founded the grocery chain in 1912 after arriving in Glasgow from Ireland.

He began selling eggs from a horse and cart and progressed later to a market stall behind the city mortuary.

He moved to his first real shop at Bridgegate, adding butter to his repertoire.

The business expanded, with two outlets in the Saltmarket forming the basis of its expansion.

However, the number of outlets had dropped to just 14 in the mid-1990s. Superstores were blamed for the chain's decline.

Most of the branches became self-service, with counter service for cold meats and bacon.