UK wholesaler Booker has announced in its interim results that it expects the Budgens and Londis businesses that it recently acquired from Musgrave Group to give a £3 million boost to its full year figures.
In the statement, covering the 24 weeks to 11 September, Booker also added that it anticipates the retailers to make a £5 million contribution to profits the following year.
‘Through Booker, Londis and Budgens joining forces, we will help independent retailers and consumers throughout Great Britain,’ Booker said in the statement.
‘Booker's aim is to further develop the Budgens and Londis brands alongside the Premier and Family Shopper brands. Retailers will benefit from a better local and national supply chain.’
Commenting, Clive Black of Shore Capital Stockbrokers said that Budgens and Londis deliver “greater geographic reach to Booker, materially extending the group's overall network in the south and east of England, where average incomes are higher than the national mean, whilst also deepening the group's reach within the M25 market.”
Black added that it will be interesting to see how the businesses benefit from “ownership by Booker in due course, a parent which to date has very carefully integrated acquired businesses. Under Musgrave's ownership B-L was loss-making and so we sense a strategic opportunity not only to self-improve the acquired unit but also for both fascias to benefit from Booker's combined management and balance sheet resource.”
© 2015 - Checkout Magazine by Stephen Wynne-Jones
