Budgens shuts swathe of stores, Booker assures of 'very strong' trading

The supermarket chain Budgens is to close 34 of its franchised convenience stores with a loss of 815 jobs, administrators said on Tuesday.

PwC were appointed administrators last month after franchisee Food Retailer Operations Limited (FROL), ran into trading trouble. FROL bought the stores from the Co-op in 2016 and traded under the Budgens brand.

"Since its acquisition of the stores from Co-op in July 2016, the company had experienced difficult trading conditions. This resulted in the company being placed into administration despite sustained efforts to make the business more commercially viable," said Mike Denny of PwC.

"The administrators have been assessing interest in the business. As a result, following the closure of nine stores at the weekend, the remaining 25 stores will, regrettably, cease trading over the course of the next two weeks with the loss of the remaining 611 jobs."

The rest of the Budgens chain, which has more than 100 stores and is owned by Booker, was still performing "very strongly" its parent company said in a statement.

"Budgens is a brand which operates 150 stores as a symbol group. The business is performing very strongly," Booker, which is being taken over by Tesco, said.

"We are disappointed that FROL are in this position, but this does not affect Budgens or its colleagues."