Haldanes chairman Arthur Harris has stepped up his astonishing attack on The Co-operative Group, suggesting other retailers had suffered after buying stores from the mutual.

Harris continues to claim The Co-op “materially” breached terms of its agreement with Haldanes when it sold 26 former Somerfield stores to the fledgling chain in late 2009.

Earlier this week Harris claimed The Co-op had “sold me, customers in 26 local markets and quite possibly 600 of their former employees down the river in order to do its deal with Somerfields, while cynically weakening the competition their own stores face in these localities”.

The Co-op responded by stating that it had started its own legal proceedings against Haldanes in April “to recover a possession a number of the 26 stores they bought from us after our acquisition of Somerfield.”

In a lengthy response received by The Grocer this morning, Harris said: “A ‘Letter before Claim’ setting out the basis that our claim would be made upon was served to The Co-op’s lawyers on 23 March 2011, approximately three weeks before the Co-op served any notices or proceedings against Haldanes.

“It has already been publicly documented and reported that the sales within the Somerfield portfolio acquired by The Co-op could not be sustained after the takeover by The Co-op.

“It is also very well documented that a number of well known and well respected retailers who purchased other stores from the divestment programme, just as Haldanes did, have also suffered similar problems and in quite a number of cases have had to close those stores down.

“We are in contact with and have the support of a number of those retailers.”

Read more
Furious Haldanes attacks The Co-op over store sales (11 May 2011)

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