Booker To Buy Londis and Budgens Chains

The food wholesale‎r Booker is to buy the Londis and Budgens chains in England, Scotland and Wales in a deal that will strengthen its status as an independent grocery retailer.

Sky News has learnt that Booker will announce a £40m deal on Thursday to buy the two so-called symbol groups from Musgrave Group, an Irish company.

The takeover will add thousands more stores to Booker's network‎ across Great Britain and represents another bold move by its chief executive, Charles Wilson.

Londis operates from more than 1,900 shops, and was originally set up in 1959 as an abbreviation of London District Stores, while Budgens has more than 180 stores.

The two additions to Booker's portfolio will complement its Premier (NasdaqGS: PINC - news) symbol group, which has more than 2,800 stores nationally, all of which are independently owned.

Mr Wilson is expected to say that Budgens and Londis will benefit from being part of a much larger wholesale group such as Booker at a time when the British food retailing sector is undergoing profound changes.

Last year, accounts filed at Companies House revealed that sales at Musgrave Retail Partners GB fell by nearly 3% to £900m‎ in 2013.

The company highlighted "fundamental and permanent structural change", with competition from deep discounters such as Aldi and Lidl among the factors affecting its performance.

The deal with Booker does not involve Musgrave's operations in Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) , according to a person close to the deal.

Booker declined to comment on Wednesday night.