The managing director of Spar regional wholesaler Appleby Westward believes whoever acquires the business will be getting ‘a jewel in the crown’ and commitment to suppliers, retailers and colleagues remains undiminished, with the wholesaler seeking ‘an owner that takes the business forward.’
Speaking at the company’s annual conference, Mike Boardman addressed the future sale of the business after the Spar Group confirmed in June that it is in exclusive talks with a UK business regarding the sale of Appleby Westward: “This business has gone through changes in the past and that has always been a good thing, retailers should have nothing to worry about.”
“As leaders of the business, we’re not afraid of change, we should embrace it and our business will move on like it always has done,” he said. “We shouldn’t be scared about saying that whoever takes on this business that they’re going to be taking on a strong, well-rounded operation that is in the high 90s for service levels.”
Boardman refused to speculate on when the deal would be completed but highlighted that Appleby Westward’s proposition didn’t fit in with the future of Spar South Africa after it conducted a strategic review of worldwide operations.
Read more: Spar in talks to sell South West distributor
“They decided to seek new ownership after a review which came to two strong conclusions. Firstly, they want to be looking after independent retailers, which is a big tick for us as it’s at the very core of our business. However, the other side of our business is that we do run a big retail estate of over 130 stores and that doesn’t fit in the ethos of their business moving forward.”
He continued: “The second thing is, I’ve always been told by Spar UK over the years that size doesn’t matter, but apparently for Spar South Africa size does matter. They want businesses with a substantial market share and ones that can be dominant in their geographical market, and in our trade, that’s not going to happen because we have a very strong and structured market in the UK with the supermarkets taking up a large part.”
He added that the independents and symbols is a smaller part of that sector but one that is still hugely important as it serves local communities. “However, we’re never going to have a scale that they’re after, so it doesn’t fit in with the future of the group, so there will be a change.”
Spar has conducted the review across all its worldwide operations and have made similar moves in Poland and Switzerland, with the former already finding a buyer.
