The biggest supplier of convenience store chain giant Spar is poised to sell its wholesale arm, aiming to cash in on the rapidly changing market.
AF Blakemore, which owns 290 Spar stores nationwide and supplies more than 1000, has reportedly hired KPMG to explore a sale with an estimated value of £100 million.
According to The Telegraph, the UK‘s fifth largest wholesaler Bestway is interested in purchasing 250-year-old AF Blakemore.
It made sales of £1.3 billion last year, but tight margins mean just £7.6 million of this was profit.
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This is being driven by the seismic shifts happening in the wholesale grocery industry with the advent of Tesco‘s proposed £3.7 billion merger with Booker.
Subsequently, supermarkets like Morrisons and Sainsbury‘s have made moves to bolster their wholesale and convenience offerings in response, putting forward proposed deals with McColls and Nisa respectively.
The managing director of Bestway Martin Race stated that the Tesco-Booker deal would be “painful” for the sector.
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