Yahoo Finance McColls shopping for Tesco’s One Stop chain in Booker merger fallout
The boss of the country’s biggest convenience store chain, McColls, has told The Daily Telegraph that he is eyeing a possible takeover of Tesco’s One Stop chain.
Industry experts believe that Tesco will have to either offload its One Stop brand or hundreds of Tesco Express shops in order to secure clearance from the UK’s competition regulator for its merger with the wholesaler Booker.
Jonathan Miller, who took the helm of McColls last year, said he hoped Booker and Tesco will be forced to make disposals. Miller recently oversaw the purchase of 300 Co-op stores.
While McColls plans to add around 50 more shops a year to its existing 1,300- store estate, a deal to buy One Stop would be a significant step up.
“Whether it’s One Stop or a number of stores we would be interested in having a look”, Mr Miller said. “One Stop is very similar to our own model, so we would be the most logical business to acquire it.”
Booker’s chief executive, Charles Wilson, said last week that the two businesses were yet to file with the Competition and Markets Authority and were still supplying the regulator with information about their tie-up.
The pair have tried to downplay competition concerns by arguing that Booker does not own its 5,463 franchise convenience stores, which includes the Londis, Premier, Budgens and Happy Shopper brands. However, rivals have argued that there will be a reduction in competition.
