In 1946, J. R.W. "Bill" Pratt established his first grocery store in Frankston that would later become one of the largest supermarket chains in Australia as a subsidiary of American-owned Safeway Inc. Pratt was studying engineering at RMIT when he took a summer job at a grocery store in Frankston in 1945. He eventually bought the store the following year, renaming it Pratt's Stores, and developed it into one of the first supermarkets in Australia in the 1950s. He also expanded to two more supermarkets in nearby Mornington and Chelsea during this time. It was the opening of his Chelsea supermarket that caught the attention of representatives from Safeway, who were in Australia sourcing apples, as it was officially opened by media personality (and Frankston resident) Graham Kennedy. Safeway entered Australia by merging with Pratt's Stores in 1962. As managing director of Safeway's Australian subsidiary, Pratt grew the chain to 126 supermarkets across eastern Australia by 1985. It was then bought by Australian-owned Woolworths Limited in 1985, who retained the successful Safeway brand in Victoria for 23 years, before rebranding all its stores as Woolworths in 2008.