WHOLESALE RESTAURANT SUPPLIER
Tesco charts new course with £3.7bn Booker buy
Booker restaurant supplier boosts the growing market for dining out to its supermarket leadership, while enabling it to double down on convenience stores
London — Tesco’s £3.7bn plan to buy Booker shows how Britain’s supermarkets must adapt to survive in a grocery industry that has changed beyond recall. With traditional, one-size-fits-all store models under pressure from discounters and online competition, Tesco wants to become the country’s undisputed food champion. In restaurant supplier Booker, it adds the growing market for dining out to its supermarket leadership, while enabling it to double down on convenience stores and offer online-order collection from 8,000 locations. "Tesco will have smart first-mover advantage in tying up the food supply chain in the brave new world of online shopping," said Neil Shah, director of research at Edison Group. Buying Booker means Tesco will have leading positions in the fastest-growing areas of the food retailing business. That is important in a market in which Aldi and Lidl’s low prices and Amazon.com’s increasing footprint have caused disruption. Tesco rival Sainsbury took a different cour...
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Subscribe now to unlock this article.
Support BusinessLIVE’s award-winning journalism for R129 per month (digital access only).
There’s never been a more important time to support independent journalism in SA. Our subscription packages now offer an ad-free experience for readers.
Cancel anytime.
Questions? Email helpdesk@businesslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00. Got a subscription voucher? Redeem it now.