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Bestway set to expand hybrid Bargain Booze / Costcutter store roll-out
UK independent food and drink wholesaler, Bestway Wholesale, has said it will develop more hybrid stores, as it opened its second dual-branded Costcutter and Bargain Booze store concept in the north of England.
Bestway acquired Costcutter in December 2020, announcing that it would open its first dual-branded store in October 2021. The first Bargain Booze franchise ‘store-within-a-store’ concept opened in April this year.
The company said that having a Bargain Booze within the Costcutter store was “an exciting and compelling off-license offer” that would complement Costcutter’s “market leading grocery proposition”.
Jamie Davison, head of new business and store development at Bestway Retail, called it an exciting milestone for the business, adding that there were further plans for developing more hybrid stores, which offered “a fantastic proposition for both retailers and consumers alike”.
The group spent more than £100,000 on the refit of the dual-branded Whiston store near Prescot, which it hopes will attract new customers and encourage different shopping missions throughout the day.
Store manager Tracy McConnell said that it had taken a huge amount of hard work to get to this point.
“It was wonderful to celebrate the opening on Saturday with all of our loyal customers who are clearly enormously excited by the new offer, and hopefully we will be attracting some new customers too,” she said.
The company has also added a range of Co-op own own label products – the convenience store has been an exclusive supplier to Costcutter Supermarkets Group since May 2018.
Bestway Wholesale had previously rolled out two other new store formats with the launch of BB, an offshoot of Bargain Booze and Tippl, an offshoot of Wine Rack but with a broader offer of beers, wines and spirits and food options, in October 2020. These aimed to extend the existing fascia’s reach of a more affluent demographic, it said.
Bestway Wholesale bought the Bargain Booze, Wine Rack and Central Convenience store brands from Conviviality Retail in April 2018 for £7.25m (although the Bargain Booze symbol group, Wine Rack and Select One were later transferred to Bestway Retail Limited in a restructure of the business).
In April, Bestway Retail reported that it had continued to stabilise the business following the restructure,, cutting operating losses from £8 million in 2020 to £2.25million in 2021.
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