nickshanagher

Rumours of a tie-up between Palmer & Harvey and Costcutter had been circulating in the industry for more than a year and the logic of the alliance is explained in a short marketing booklet. Together they have set up a not-for-profit Buyco to negotiate the best possible terms. The duo are promising existing customers even better prices than ever before. Will this happen? There is a good chance if the new retail arm can organise its disciplines and demonstrate that it is creating new purchase opportunities for suppliers. What independent retailers have to be realistic about is that Tesco has a six per cent margin advantage because it controls around a third of the market. Simply lumping all their invoices together does not create the value, working collaboratively to meet shopper needs does. P&H has handed over all its symbol group convenience operations to Costcutter as part of this deal. Thus its Mace and SuperShop members will be managed by the team at Costcutter. P...

It is a tricky business to keep on top of what the numbers of stores belonging to each symbol group mean. At one level, it could mean that head offices are able to negotiate better deals because they have more shops taking part in promotions. At another, it could mean that more local retailers are choosing one group over another as it is delivering more to their bottom lines. It could be fashion. It could be an exercise in badging for vanity. However, now that the IGD has updated its annual figures, Booker's Premier symbol group has overtaken Spar UK to top the chart with a 15.9 per cent of outlet numbers versus 15.7 per cent. Bestway takes third spot with a Best-one/Best-in share of 13.8 per cent, followed by Lifestyle from Landmark at 12.9 per cent. Londis has dropped to an 11.0 per cent share and Costcutter to a 9.5 per cent share. Mace has grown to a 5.3 per cent share and Nisa to a 4.8 per cent share. Overall, there are 16,288 symbol group stores, up 2.9 per cent on the ...