Booths partners with Eric Wright for new Lancs supermarket

EH BOOTH, the Lancashire-based grocery retailer, is pushing ahead with plans to buy a shopping centre in Poulton-le-Fylde and replace it with a new supermarket.

In recently filed accounts, signed off in July, chairman Edwin Booth said the Preston company was acquiring the site through a joint venture formed with the Eric Wright Group subsidiary, Maple Grove Developments.

The two companies have previously worked together on a town centre scheme in Penrith.

Mr Booth said: “We are using our joint venture company with Maple Grove Developments with a view to purchasing the Teanlowe Shopping Centre at Poulton-le-Fylde where we plan to construct a large, modern Booths to replace the premises on Ball Street.”

He added: “There are many new development opportunities available to us but we are being prudent in bringing these forward at a rate that bears due relationship to our trading performance.”

Sales at the group in the year to March were up 1% to £273m, but pre-tax profits fell 28% to £5.8m, partly due to higher finance charges and tighter margins.