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Bestway Wholesale Holdings Limited is a British food and drink wholesale business, founded in 1976 by Sir Anwar Pervez.

The business also owns a number of symbol retail identities, including Costcutter, Bargain Booze, Best-one and Mace.

History

In 1976 Sir Anwar Pervez established Bestway Wholesale's first wholesale warehouse in Acton, West London. This was followed by warehouses in Southall (1981), Hackney (1983), Park Royal (1984) before expansion around the country.

Bestway Wholesale also acquired Bashin Cash & Carry in 1984, Crown Crest Limited in 1987 and Link Cash & Carry in 1988.

In January 2005 Bestway Group Chief Executive Zameer Choudrey CBE led the acquisition of Batleys plc for £100 million. Batleys contributed towards expanding the Group's market share by 50%. An Office of Fair Trading report published soon after the acquisition stated that the merged entity was the fourth largest national grocery wholesaler in the UK, with a 9.9% share of supply in grocery wholesaling as a whole and 15.9% share of supply in cash & carry alone.

In addition to organic growth over the years, Bestway Wholesale acquired Bellevue Cash & Carry's two warehouses in Edinburgh and Stirling in June 2010. In November 2010 the Group went on to acquire the Martex Group of three cash & carry warehouses and its food service operation from C J Lang.

In April 2014, the Group acquired Glasgow-based wholesaler Sher Brothers and merged Sher Brothers into the Batleys brand.

In April 2018, the company purchased the assets and brands of Conviviality Retail from administrators PwC for £7.25m. PwC partner Matthew Callaghan said: ‘This deal safeguards the jobs of more than 2,000 employees.

In June 2018, the company acquired two Blakemore Wholesale's warehouses in Cardiff and Walsall.

In December 2020, the company acquired symbol operator Costcutter Supermarkets Group for an undisclosed fee from Bibby Line Group. The Costcutter operations initially become part of Bestway's retail arm. This involved the integration of around 1,500 stores branded Costcutter, Mace, Supershop, Kwiksave and Simply Fresh, along with 20 Costcutter and four Co-op franchise stores.

In January 2021, Bestway Wholesale introduced two new symbol group off-licence brands, Tippl and BB's.

In February 2022, Bestway Wholesale Managing Director Dawood Pervez indicated that it was considering consolidating all its symbol groups under four brands: Best-one, Costcutter, Bargain Booze and Wine Rack. This was confirmed in December 2022.

In August 2023, Bestway Wholesale re-branded the 22 Batleys sites under its own name.

Operations

Current operations

Bestway Wholesale is the UK's second largest food wholesaler. It consists of several divisions each specialising in different areas of the wholesale market in the United Kingdom and also operates in the UK retail sector through a number of different branded symbol franchise outlets:

Former operations

See also

• Bestway

References

1. Trainis, Neil (14 October 2015). "The Big Interview: Zameer Choudrey". pharmacy.biz. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
2. Finance (30 January 2005). "Bestway pays £100m cash to carry off rival chain". Telegraph. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
3. Administrator, Mediasurface (9 March 2010). "Completed acquisition by Bestway (Holdings) Limited of Batleys Limited". The Office of Fair Trading. Archived from the original on 2 April 2014. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
4. "Bestway Takes Over Bellevue". Scotland Food and Drink. 22 June 2010. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
5. Peter Cripps (21 June 2010). "Bestway snaps up Scots wholesaler Bellevue". Thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
6. Beth Brooks (22 October 2011). "Bellevue and Martex swell Bestway's sales". Thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
7. Beth Brooks (1 August 2014). "How Bestway transformed its Glasgow depot: in pictures". Thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
8. Beth Brooks (4 April 2014). "Bestway buys Glasgow wholesaler Sher Bros". Thegrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 14 December 2015.
9. Gerrard, Bradley (6 April 2018). "Bestway primed to save 2,000 more jobs with deal for Conviviality retail arm". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 January 2019 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
10. Bright, Emily (15 June 2018). "Bestway picks up Blakemore depots in Cardiff and Walsall". TheGrocer.co.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2019.
11. "Bestway snaps up Costcutter for undisclosed fee".
12. Hook, Sonya (22 January 2021). "Bestway's Tippl and BB's concepts: Braving a new retail approach". Drinks Retailing. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
13. "Dawood Pervez: determining the Bestway forward". Cash & Carry Management. 8 February 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
14. Yau, Alex (6 December 2022). "Bestway to consolidate symbol portfolio into Costcutter, Best-one, Bargain Booze and Wine Rack". Better Retailing. Retrieved 7 October 2023.
15. Yau, Alex (30 August 2023). "Batleys depots rebranded to Bestway". Better Retailing. Retrieved 7 October 2023.

External links

• Official website

• Wholesalers of the United Kingdom
• Retail companies of the United Kingdom
• Companies of the United Kingdom
• Retail companies established in 1976
• Food and drink companies of the United Kingdom
• Supermarkets of the United Kingdom
• 1976 establishments in the United Kingdom
• British companies established in 1976
• Food and drink companies established in 1976