Booker Group

Booker Group plc
Public company
Traded as LSE: BOK
Industry Retail catering
Founded 1835
Headquarters Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Key people
 Richard Rose, Chairman
Charles Wilson, CEO
Products Cash and carry outlets
Revenue £4,753 million (2015)[1]
£140.3 million (2015)[1]
£117.7 million (2015)[1]
Website www.bookergroup.com

Booker Group plc is the United Kingdom's largest food wholesale operator offering branded and private-label goods to over 400,000 customers, including independent convenience stores, grocers, pubs and restaurants.[2] The firm is listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The company also founded, and was previously a sponsor of, the highly prestigious Booker Prize (originally the Booker–McConnell Prize) for literary fiction, which was established in 1968. [3]

History

Origins

The company was founded by George and Richard Booker in 1835 when they bought their first ship and established the Booker Line which focused on shipping goods.[4] It later diversified into the distribution of goods, and gradually disposed of its fleet of ships. With a new focus on food wholesale distribution, the company had over 100 warehouses across the United Kingdom by 1978, and was trading as Booker, McConnell Ltd.[5]

Among other interests, it operated the sugar industry in Guyana (British Guiana before independence in 1966), running five Booker Line ships, until it was nationalised around 1970. After six months, Booker was called back to market the sugar. Booker had a long history of exploitation of sugar workers through the indentured labour system during the 19th and 20th centuries. At its peak it controlled 75% of the sugar industry in British Guiana and was so powerful that a common joke was to refer to the country as "Booker's Guiana".[6] In 1952, Jock Campbell took over the Chairmanship of the company and his Fabian social politics transformed it dramatically into a benevolent force providing major benefits for sugar workers.[7] Jock Campbell was also instrumental in the setting up of the Booker's Author Division, which sponsored the Booker Prize.[8]

Expansion

In 1986, the company set up a short lived co-venture between the directors of Siriol Animation to create Kalisto Limited.[9] Kalisto also developed a show called Space Baby (which eventually became Fantastic Max), along with another series called Satellite City (which was co-produced with Fairwater Films)[10] and the animated film The Little Engine That Could.[11] Kalisto barely lasted a year before Booker bought the rights back.[12]

Happy Shopper, Black Moor Estate, Moor Allerton, Leeds

In November 1996, Booker bought Nurdin & Peacock, taking ownership of the convenience store operator and brand Happy Shopper.[2] Happy Shopper's products are sold by Booker to independent convenience stores and off-licences. In 2000, the brands logo of a smiling face with blonde hair was dropped from products and packaging as part of a redesign by Partners In Communication, a design consultant company.[13]

In 2000 Booker was purchased by Iceland Supermarkets, via its Big Food Group vehicle.[14] Then in 2005 Big Food Group was in turn bought by acquisitive Icelandic group Baugur,[15] which split Booker and Iceland again into different companies.[16] In June 2007 Booker reversed into AIM-listed wholesaler of groceries Blueheath, to form Booker Group plc.[17]

Baugur sold all its assets in Booker Cash & Carry in June 2008[18] only weeks after its founder was found guilty of accounting irregularities.[19] Baugur collapsed in February 2009 amidst the Icelandic financial crisis.[20]

In 2009, Booker opened a store in Mumbai, and plans to have 20 cash and carry stores across India by 2017.[21]

On 30 May 2012, Metro Group sold the 30 Makro United Kingdom stores and all operational assets to Booker Group Plc, in return for 9.99% of Booker's share capital, plus £15.8 million in cash; although the merger was referred to the Office of Fair Trading it was cleared by the Competition Commission in April 2013.[22]

In May 2015, Booker Group confirmed it had reached an agreement with Musgrave Group to buy the Budgens and Londis grocery chains, for £40 million.[23]

Booker Author's Division

Main pages: Category:Booker authors' division and Man Booker Prize

During Jock Campbell's chairmanship of the company, then known as Booker-McConnell, he was also instrumental in the setting up of the Booker's Author Division. Campbell purchased 51 per cent of Glidrose Ltd, which owned the copyrights of his friend Ian Fleming for £100,000.[7] This purchase was the foundation of the Authors' Division[24] which also acquired rights to a number of well-known authors' works, such as Dennis Wheatley[24] and the 64% stake in Agatha Christie's works not controlled by her family.[25] In 1998 Agatha Christie's stakeholding was sold to Chorion for £10million,[25] who themselves sold it on in 2012 to Acorn Media UK.[26] The division also co-founded and sponsored the prestigious Booker-McConnell Prize for literature in 1968, now known as Man Booker Prize, the Booker Prize, or simply, "the Booker". This was transferred to the independent Booker Prize Foundation in 2002 and became sponsored by the Man Group plc, who opted to retain the well-known "Booker" name.[8]

Chairmen of the Author's division have included Charles William Tyrell (1960s–1970s), Dennis H. Joss (1970s–1980s) and Agatha Christie's grandson Mathew Caradoc Thomas Prichard (1990s–2000s).[27][28]

Operations

The company supplies approximately 1.5 million businesses across the United Kingdom, through its different divisions. It operates cash-and-carry branches throughout the United Kingdom (as well as a few in India) and operates a national delivery service in the United Kingdom.[29]

As of March 2014 the company employed nearly 13,000 individuals.[30]

The industry journal The Grocer named Booker the "Green Wholesaler of the Year" at the Grocer Gold Awards.[30]

The group consists of several divisions each specialising in different areas of the wholesale market in the United Kingdom.

In popular culture

Booker's Happy Shopper brand is parodied in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but renamed The Hippy Shopper. The store in the game bears exact resemblance to the real life stores.[36]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Final Results 2015". Booker Group. Retrieved 25 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Booker Cash & Carry Ltd. History". International Directory of Company Histories, Vol.68. St. James Press, 2005. Funding Universe. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  3. ↑ "Broker Group PLC". ft.com. Retrieved 2015-07-06.
  4. ↑ Booker Line 1835 – 1978, Page 2
  5. ↑ Booker Line 1835 – 1978, Page16
  6. ↑ "The Bookers Empire". guyana.org. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  7. 1 2 "OBITUARIES : Lord Campbell of Eskan". The Independent. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  8. 1 2 "The Man Booker Prizes". Themanbookerprize.com. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  9. ↑ "Booker Animation Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  10. ↑ "Satellite City". Planète Jeunesse. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  11. ↑ "The Little Engine That Could (1991)". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  12. ↑ "Booker PLC". IMBd. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  13. ↑ "Happy Shopper Brand Redesign". Partners In Communication. 12 May 2009. Retrieved 12 May 2009.
  14. ↑ "Iceland in £373m Booker takeover". BBC. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  15. ↑ "Business | Baugur buys UK's Big Food Group". BBC News. 19 December 2004. Retrieved 3 July 2015.
  16. ↑ "BFG agrees to Baugur bid". Food & Drink. 20 December 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  17. ↑ Fletcher, Richard (12 May 2007). "Baugur profits plunge by more than two-thirds Box Head arrow to line with head". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  18. ↑ Baugur sells Booker stake as part of focus on retail, Retail Week, 24 June 2008, retrieved 27 December 2008
  19. ↑ "Baugur boss loses court appeal". Reuters. 6 June 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  20. ↑ "Hamleys investor seeks protection". BBC News. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  21. ↑ "UK's cash & carry plans 20 India stores in 5 years". Business Standard. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  22. ↑ A report on the completed acquisition by Booker Group PLC of Makro Holding Limited
  23. ↑ "Booker Group to buy Budgens and Londis". BBC News. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  24. 1 2 Griswold, John. "Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming's". Authorhouse/Google Books. p. 371. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  25. 1 2 "Chorion grabs the Booker prize". BBC News. 3 June 1998.
  26. ↑ "Agatha Christie Estate Acquired By U.S.-Based Acorn Media". Penske Business Media, LLC. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  27. ↑ Jane's Major Companies of Europe. Jane's Information Group.
  28. ↑ The Directory of Directors: A List of the Directors of the Principal Public and Private Companies in the United Kingdom with the Names of the Concerns with which They are Associated. Reed Telepublishing.
  29. ↑ "What We Do". Booker Group. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 "Business Overview". Booker. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  31. ↑ "About Classic Drinks". Classic Drinks. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  32. ↑ "Introduction to Chef Direct...". Chef Direct. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  33. ↑ "Booker acquires Ritter for £14.5m". The Financial Times Ltd. Retrieved 13 December 2015.
  34. ↑ "Premier Stores package". Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  35. ↑ "About Booker India". Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  36. ↑ "Grand Theft Auto Franchise Playfully Flicks Mud at Its Birthplace: Scotland". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 December 2015.

External links

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