Somerfield is targeting Scottish convenience operators as it expands its Essentials convenience estate, building on the Aberness business it bought in March.

Head of convenience business David Cheyne said it was talking to Scottish chains as well as single store independent operators.

Somerfield this week made its first Scottish acquisition since buying Aberness, spending £2.6m taking on 11 former Osprey forecourts which were in receivership.

Five of these will be converted to Essentials and the other six have already been sold on.

Cheyne said Somerfield had rejected those sites as it was “not in the numbers game”.

He said: “It’s down to quality. We want to establish a quality convenience brand over the next 12 months.”

It was already on track to convert a “significant percentage” of Scottish Mace stores to the fascia, following its acquisition of Aberness in March.

Cheyne said: “There was a degree of nervousness from Aberness-supplied Mace retailers at first, but now they understand that Somerfield will bring them better terms with our buying power.”

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