Spar's Scottish wholesaler is definitely not for sale, according to its chief executive David Walker. There have been frequent rumours in the trade suggesting the family which owns CJ Lang was about to sell the business, but Walker said: "There is no intention of selling the company." He said the board members had just approved a five year business plan proposing to double the number of company owned stores and to refurbish its existing estate. He added: "People do not invest heavily in a business if they have plans to sell it." Walker said he had funds to increase the number of company owned stores from 52 to 100 at the rate of 10 a year, and was particularly interested in forecourts after a partnership with Texaco. CJ Lang supplied the oil company's Scottish forecourt stores in a trial which was terminated in November. Walker said: "It enabled us to learn a lot about forecourts. I've always steered clear of them because of all the regulatory red tape in petrol. But in the US almost every c-store is on a forecourt. "Most oil companies are not interested if they are doing less than four million litres a year, but we see potential in sites doing two million litres. I don't want petrol sites with a Spar store, I want a Spar store that also happens to sell petrol." Walker also reassured the company's independent retailer customers that they would not be neglected. The five year plan envisaged adding nearly 100 stores to the 305 independents, and added: "We have a policy to grow, but not at the expense of independents. If a Spar member wants a store we are interested in, we back off." Walker also said the company planned to retain its six C&C depots, but would not be adding any more and would not be interested in Bellevue or Rentons, if their parent company BWG sought to sell them. {{NEWS }}

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