Booker CEO Charles Wilson has criticised wholesale rivals for complaining about the £3.7bn merger with Tesco in the hope the government will “protect their little islands”.
There was “an awful lot of change” in the market and wholesalers would have to up their game to succeed,Wilson told The Grocer in an exclusive interview this week.
“There’s change coming into the market regardless of Booker-Tesco,” he said. “You are witnessing a change in the way the structure of the trade takes place.
“The idea that people can say ’you shouldn’t do this because my little business might find it a bit more difficult is not a particularly compelling argument when from a retailer or caterer point of view they need better choice, quality, price and service. They need a better supply from their partners. And your responsibility [as a wholesaler] should be to do a better job within wholesale for those constituencies, rather than hope that the government protects your little island,” Wilson added.
With the dust still settling on the CMA’s provisional decision to approve the £3.7bn merger between Tesco and Booker, Wilson and Tesco CEO Dave Lewis are now expecting the final go-ahead by Boxing Day.
Speaking to The Grocer, Wilson and Lewis explained why they were confident of fighting off the “naysayers” among shareholders and how Tesco planned to transform redundant space in its Extra hypermarkets into catering outlets for Booker’s top 1,000 lines. Lewis also hit out at speculation over the future of One Stop.
An earlier version of this article mistakenly attributed the ‘little island’ quote to Dave Lewis. The comment was, in fact, made by Charles Wilson.
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