South west Spar wholesaler Appleby Westward has moved from sixth to fifth place in terms of turnover in the rankings of Spar wholesalers, said Wessex Guild of Spar chairman John Hart. Almost a third of the stores converting to the Millennium Store format nationally in the year to April were members of Appleby which is focused on independents, with no company owned stores. Total sales were up between 9%-10% this year, against an average across Spar of about 5%. The group has 274 stores with an aggressive growth target of 427 stores by 2006, said Hart. Parent BWG is currently being sold by its parent Pernod Ricard. {{NEWS }}

Topics