Costcutter owner Bibby Line Group has laid out ambitions to grow the symbol group to 6,000 stores.
Costcutter currently has 2,547 stores, according to the Grocery Retail Structure 2014 after taking over Palmer & Harvey’s Mace, Supershop and Your Store fascias in March last year as part of a joint buy and supply agreement.
“We have a target for 6,000 stores,” Bibby Line Group MD Sir Michael Bibby told the Financial Times.
“In this sector it is not really Spar competing with Costcutter and Londis, but it is independents against the supermarkets. We need to have the same offer and price as the supermarkets,” he added.
Sir Michael also revealed that Bibby Line Group reported a 13% increase in sales to £1.6bn in the year to 31 December 2013, and a 50% increase in operating profits to £69.6m, boosted by strong demand for its fleet of diving support and remotely operated vessels in its offshore business.
Its retail business, which includes Costcutter, increased sales by 20% to £806.7m. Like-for-like sales rose 1%. Sir Michael said: “We are very happy with that. There has been a lot of change.”
On the group results, he said: “Some exceptional performances helped the group deliver record sales, cash generation and profit during the year, despite challenging conditions in some of our business areas.
“A number of strategic initiatives and operational improvements underway across the business have already begun to pay dividends in the current year, while the conditions in our offshore and specialist marine divisions continue to provide a strong tail-wind.
“We therefore expect to see a more balanced contribution across the group in the year ahead, while the effects of a broader economic recovery should create further momentum in many of our markets,” Sir Michael added.
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