Bargain Booze owner weighs up options
BARGAIN Booze, the franchise off-licence business based in Crewe, could soon be up for sale again, according to reports.
The firm’s private equity owners, ECI Partners, have appointed KPMG to conduct a review to see whether a sale can be achieved at a suitable price. According to a report in the Sunday Times, a price tag of around £90m has been placed on the business.
ECI has owned Bargain Booze since completing a £63.5m secondary buyout of the business in 2006. Last month, the company filed accounts for the year to April 30, 2010, which showed that pre-tax profits increased to £4.3m on the back of a 4% rise in turnover to £371.2m.
Speaking to TheBusinessDesk.com at the time the accounts were filed., joint managing director Matthew Hughes declared the firm was “satisfied with the growth in the company’s profits, which has been achieved whilst at the same time we have focused on growing our individual franchisees’ businesses”.
“The extent to which we have achieved this reflects the robust nature of our trading model which has continues to be successful even in the most challenging of economic climates,” he added.
Bargain Booze currently has around 650 outlets across the UK – the bulk of which are in the North and Midlands. Around 100 of these operate under the Select Convenience store fascia.
