Londis (United Kingdom)

Last updated

Londis
Company type Private
IndustryRetail
Founded1959
Number of locations
1,833 (2024)
Area served
United Kingdom
ProductsGroceries
Parent Tesco [1] (via Booker Group [2] )
Website www.londis.co.uk

Londis is a symbol group in the United Kingdom with over 2,000 stores nationwide. Tesco owns the brand, following its 2018 purchase of Booker Group. [3] [2] [1]

Contents

Although it was formerly a subsidiary, the Londis brand in Ireland is no longer related to Londis (UK).

Etymology

The name Londis is a contraction of "London District Stores". [4]

History

Foundation

A Londis in London in 2007 LondisFermePark.jpg
A Londis in London in 2007

Londis was established in Great Britain in 1959 by Kevin Stanley-Adams as a communally owned company, with each retailer owning a share in the parent company. [4]

Acquisition by Musgrave Group

However, in June 2004, the parent company was sold to the Irish Musgrave wholesale chain with a payment of £31,000 being made to each retailer who owned a stake, [5] bringing it under the same ownership as Budgens, which has now adopted a similar franchise based business model. This acquisition proved controversial, [6] [7] with the CEO of Musgrave in the United Kingdom, Eoin McGettigan, steering through the choppy waters of member revolts and counter offers from others backed by Icelandic banks. [8] A separate, but wholly owned subsidiary company, Musgrave Retail Partners GB Ltd. was formed to supply the stores, until it was sold to Booker Group in 2015. [9] In May 2015, Londis' parent company Musgrave Group confirmed it had reached an agreement to sell Budgens and Londis for £40 million to the wholesaler Booker Group, subject to regulatory approval. [2]

Acquisition by Booker Group

Since May 2015, the company has been owned by Booker Group, which purchased Londis and its sister company Budgens from the Musgrave Group for £40 million.

Tesco plc acquired Booker Group in 2018. [1]

Operations

The current Londis retailer network is in excess of 2,200 stores and forecourt shops located throughout England, Scotland and Wales. [10]

Related Research Articles

Tesco plc is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. The company was founded by Jack Cohen in Hackney, London in 1919. In 2011, it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in the world measured by revenues. It has shops in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia. It is the market leader of groceries in the UK.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WHSmith</span> British retailer

WH Smith PLC, trading as WHSmith, is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sainsbury's</span> British supermarket chain

J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is a British supermarket and the second-largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metro AG</span> German multinational wholesaling company

Metro AG is a German multinational company based in Düsseldorf which operates business membership-only cash and carry stores primarily under the Metro brand. As of March 2024, Metro is operating 626 wholesale stores in 21 countries, including Europe, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan.

Tesco Ireland Limited is the Irish subsidiary of supermarket group Tesco. Tesco Ireland was formed by Tesco plc's 1997 purchase of the Irish retailing operations of Associated British Foods, namely Powers' Supermarkets Limited and its subsidiaries, trading as "Quinnsworth" and "Crazy Prices". There are 152 Tesco stores in operation in Ireland as of August 2018. Tesco had approximately 21% of the Irish grocery market in 2019 and its main competitors are Dunnes Stores and SuperValu.

BWG Foods UC is an Irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SuperValu (Ireland)</span> Irish supermarket chain

SuperValu is a supermarket chain that operates throughout the island of Ireland. SuperValu is operated as a symbol group; each supermarket is independently owned, with individual owners using the SuperValu format and selling the chain's own brand products. SuperValu outlets tend to be larger than the convenience shop formats used by many other symbol group retailers such as Centra, Gala and Spar, and the larger SuperValu units are on a par with full-service supermarkets. Their main competitors are Dunnes Stores and Tesco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Game (retailer)</span> UK-based video game retailer

Game Retail Limited is a British video game retailer, owned by Frasers Group since June 2019.

Budgens Stores Limited, trading as Budgens, is a chain of grocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen, who opened the first shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire and was incorporated as a private limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary and retail fascia of Booker Group, part of Tesco plc.

Musgrave Group Ltd. is an Irish food wholesaler, founded in Cork by the Musgrave brothers, Thomas and Stuart in 1876. It is currently Ireland's largest grocery distributor, with operations in Ireland and Spain with estimated annual sales of over €4 billion. The current CEO is Noel Keeley. Today, the company is still largely-owned by the Musgrave family.

In the Republic of Ireland, the retail sector provides one of the largest sources of employment in the economy, representing over 12% of the workforce. As of 2017, approximately 40,000 wholesale and retail businesses employed almost 280,000 people in Ireland, with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment reporting that 90% of these businesses were Irish-owned.

Booker Group Limited is a British wholesale distributor, and subsidiary of Tesco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E-Land Group</span> South Korean conglomerate

E·Land Group (Korean: 이랜드그룹) is a South Korean conglomerate headquartered in Changjeon-dong Mapo-gu Seoul, South Korea. E-Land Group takes part in retail malls, restaurants, theme parks, hotels, and construction businesses as well as its cornerstone, fashion apparel business. It has operations worldwide through its subsidiary E-Land World.

In the United Kingdom, it is common practice for retailers to have their own value brand in an effort to compete on price. These brands have become more popular in the UK with shoppers since the Great Recession caused food prices to rise.

Tesco has expanded its operations from the United Kingdom to 11 other countries. Tesco pulled out of the United States in 2013, but continues to see growth elsewhere. Tesco's international expansion strategy has responded to the need to be sensitive to local expectations in other countries by entering into joint ventures with local partners, such as Samsung Group in South Korea, and Charoen Pokphand in Thailand, appointing a very high proportion of local personnel to management positions. It also makes small acquisitions as part of its strategy: for example, in its 2005/2006 financial year it made acquisitions in South Korea, one in Poland and one in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Londis (Ireland)</span> Irish convenience store chain

Londis is a chain of convenience shop franchises operating in Ireland. The stores form a symbol group and are all owned on a franchise basis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack's (store)</span> 2018–2022 British discount supermarket chain

Jack's was a British discount supermarket chain based in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, owned by Tesco.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Tesco and Booker merger". 29 January 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 "Booker Group to buy Budgens and Londis". BBC News. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  3. ↑ "Booker Retail Partners (GB) Limited". Endole. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  4. 1 2 "Londis - Grocery.com". Perpetual Media Group. 14 September 2011. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  5. ↑ Muspratt, Caroline (23 June 2004). "Londis retailers back Musgrave's windfall takeover". Telegraph. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  6. ↑ Pratley, Nils (19 January 2004). "Trouble in store". The Guardian . Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  7. ↑ "Anger over Londis directors' payout". Manchester Evening News. 12 August 2004. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  8. ↑ "Londis deal sees shopkeepers ring up £30,000 each". The Guardian . 23 June 2004. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  9. ↑ "Booker Group completes £40m acquisition of Londis and Budgens". Retail Week. 14 September 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  10. ↑ "Exclusive: Londis reaches 2,000 stores after fall of Conviviality". betterRetailing. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.