Joint venture schemes enabling wholesalers and independents to share the cost of buying up new stores are a key part of AF Blakemore's expansion strategy, said the Spar wholesaler's retail director Elwyn Davies. "It's early days but we've bedded down the scheme with two JVCs over the last few months and we're in the early stages of discussions with up to four more," said Davies, who is preparing to scale up the marketing behind the scheme in the coming weeks. Under the franchise scheme, Blakemore finds the sites, organises bank loans for retailers and takes a 33% stake in the business. Two separate joint venture companies have already been set up by former Alldays RDC directors Stewart Gibson and Jim Gray under the names of ESC and Croyland respectively. Gibson and business partner Sharen Philips at ESC run four stores in Winterton, Lincoln, Caythorpe and Peterborough, while Gray operates two outlets in Skegness and Chapel St Leonards. , Lincolnshire. Gibson has already indentified another possible site in the Peterborough area, and predicts ESC will quickly grow to "10 or more stores in a very short period of time". All joint venture stores trade under the Spar fascia. "We're looking for professional retailers able to operate as many as 10 or 15 stores," said Davies, who has set the target of opening 257 new stores over the next five years. {{NEWS }}

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