United Co-operatives Limited has announced that it has made an approach to the board of supermarket chain Somerfield with a view to exploring the possibility of making an offer for Somerfield.
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“There can be no certainty that an offer will be made,” United Co-operatives said. “A further announcement will be made in due course.”
United Co-operatives is the UK’s largest independent co-operative society. It had annual sales of £1.9bn (US$3.6bn) and trading profits of £50 million for the year ended 22 January 2005. It was formed in 2002 by the successful integration of United Norwest and Yorkshire co-operatives.
It operates 942 trading outlets, of which 509 are food stores. The society’s food group had sales of £806n last year and is a leading small food store operator in the North Midlands, the North West and Yorkshire where it serves over 3m customers each week.
Wal-Mart’s UK supermarket chain Asda, has also been reported to be considering a bid for supermarket Somerfield, while there are two consortia looking at the company.
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By GlobalDataOne consortium is led by Apax Partners, the private equity group, backed by Baugur, the Icelandic retailer, Barclays Capital and Robert Tchenguiz, the property tycoon. The rival group consists of London & Regional, the property company, and Nomura, the Japanese bank.
