Waitrose has approached the British Corner Shop over potentially selling via the online grocery platform once more.
Expat favourite BCS is relaunching later this month after falling into administration twice in under 12 months.
The business was rescued by two entrepreneurs from Newcastle, Harvey Hayer and Amar Dulay, after they bought the BCS intellectual property in a bidding process in March.
They have now been approached by Waitrose as BCS prepares to relaunch in the US, the new owners have confirmed.
Waitrose first became the BCS’s official retail partner in 2016, with the website stocking over 2,000 own-brand products including Waitrose Duchy Organic, Essential Waitrose and the premium No.1 range.
The partnership lasted for about five years. The Bristol-based online platform then struck a deal in 2021 with Marks & Spencer to sell its products, including the popular Percy Pigs sweets, to an audience of over 700,000 people in more than 150 countries around the world.
But this relationship came to an end when BCS entered administration for the second time in January this year, citing irrecoverable financial wounds mainly driven by Brexit and Covid-19.
M&S was owed a hefty £539,234 after the downfall. The supermarket was also likely to be left out of pocket, as an administrator’s report back in February predicted the BCS would realise just £236k from its assets, with all of it expected to go to banks and HMRC.
In total, BCS owed just over £2.5m to creditors.
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Now that the company is relaunching under a different ownership, Waitrose was “interested in doing business with BCS again” along with an array of other previous suppliers, the new owners told The Grocer.
Waitrose acknowledged one of its team had approached BCS but said there were “no plans to relist” on the platform.
“As with any brand though, we are happy to keep connections open should anything change further down the line,” added a spokesman.
The upscale retailer has been growing its exports ambitions lately. It said in December it planned to “rapidly” expand its international exports business after seeing foreign demand for its own-label products surge.
Overseas sales of Waitrose own-label products including cheese, granola and baked beans grew 14% in 2023 on the back of increased demand from UK expats and local shoppers, the supermarket said.
It has set the target of growing its export sales by 10% in 2024 by expanding its network of international third-party distributors.
This was followed by a partnership with Ramsden International earlier this year to sell more than 1,000 own-label products to the exporter’s vast global network.
The offering spans ambient grocery and non-food ranges, including seasonal assortments such as confectionery, bakery and gifting, as well as store cupboard essentials such as pasta, cereals and preserves.
Waitrose director of commercial sales & convenience, Barry Delehanty, said of the tie-up: “We are excited to work with Ramsden, having admired them as distributors for many years.
“We hope with Ramsden to be able to re-access European continental markets and introduce the Waitrose brand to their wide network of customers further afield.”
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