Booker news

Following the announcement back in July that its depot in Plymouth was to close, it has now been announced that Bestway is also to close its Batley’s cash & carry depot in Coventry.  Bestway aims for its customers currently serviced from Batley's Coventry to be transferred to others of its sites in the West Midlands, with delivered customers being covered by its Oldbury depot and ‘collect’ custom...

Tesco has announced that Booker CEO Charles Wilson is to retire in February 2021 after 15 years of leading the Booker business. Charles Wilson was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple of years ago and has fought back against the disease but has decided that now is the right time to make a break from running the business. Leaves Booker as the biggest UK wholesaler with a unique breadth of capa...

Data shared by Tesco in its Q1 performance update to 30 May provides the first public statement showing detail of the full impact of the pandemic emergency on the wholesaling channel, indicating the specific scale of the asymmetrical effects on retail versus foodservice business.  With total sales for the period boosted to 6.1% by the acquisition of Best Foods in March, Booker’s net like-for-like...

Tesco has released robust full year results for the year to 29 February 2020, together with an update on how it is supporting customers and colleagues through the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. Headline results (actual exchange rates, 52 week change) Group sales: -0.7% to £56.5bn UK & Ireland sales: +0.1%, +0.2% LFL Tesco UK: -0.6%, -0.3% LFL Booker sales: +5.0%, +3.3% LFL Ce...

Tesco has delivered a solid performance in a challenging UK market and continued to progress major changes to its European and Asian operations. Headline LFL results     Q3: 13 weeks to 23 Nov   Christmas: 6 weeks to 4 Jan Combined: 19 weeks to 4 Jan UK -0.4 +0.1 -0.2 ROI +2.0 +1.9 ...

Consolidation and evolving shopper trends are impacting convenience retailers and the channel more widely. In the convenience retailing stream of IGD Live , Costcutter shared the benefits it is realising from ranging for local catchments, while the founder of Thorntons Budgens, Andrew Thornton, discussed his initiatives to remove plastic from its operations. Tailoring range to the needs o...

Thornton’s Budgens in Belsize Park, London, has launched a new range of plastic-free products, including store cupboard essentials, drinks and personal care products. Unpackaged range At the end of 2018, Thornton's Budgens store in Camden switched more than 1,700 product lines to plastic-free packaging, with the aim of becoming "virtually plastic-free" within three years. By January 29th,...

Tesco has announced the acquisition of Best Foods Logistics, the leading logistics operator in the UK foodservice sector, previously part of the Bidcorp (Bidfood) wholesale group.  This brings significant incremental scale and reach to the Booker foodservice business.  As well as adding some £1.1bn of turnover, Best Foods boasts a portfolio of major national business customers from the UK out-of-...

Tesco has reported solid results for the 13 weeks ending 25th May 2019 with strong trading over Easter, through Booker and online as it began celebrating its centenary year. Key figures Group sales: +0.4% (+0.2% LFL) UK and ROI total sales: +1.3% (+1.3% LFL) UK -0.4% total sales (+0.4% LFL) Central Europe -7.9% (-4.9% LFL) Asia +2.6% (+0.1% LFL) 2019 off to a good start ...

The franchise network of Tesco subsidiary One Stop, now comprising 180 stores, has reported that these averaged like-for-like growth of 6.8% in the final quarter of the 2018/19 year to March.  This completes a run of 16 consecutive quarters of growth for One Stop. Extension of private label playing a key role With growth driven by both an uplift in basket spend of more than 5% and an increase...