Booker Group

Booker Group plc
Public company
Traded as LSE: BOK
Industry Retail catering
Founded 1835
Headquarters Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Key people
 Richard Rose, Chairman
Charles Wilson, CEO
Products Cash and carry outlets
Revenue £4,681.6 million (2014)[1]
£120.4 million (2014)[1]
£105.2 million (2014)[1]
Website www.bookergroup.com

Booker Group plc is the United Kingdom's largest food wholesale operator, offering branded and private-label goods to over 400,000 customers including independent convenience stores, grocers, pubs and restaurants. The firm is listed on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index and was the founder and former sponsor of the highly prestigious Booker Prize (originally the Booker-McConnell Prize) for literary fiction, which was established in 1968.

History

Food, food-related and distribution industries

The company was founded by George and Richard Booker in 1835 when they bought their first ship and established the Booker Line.[2] It diversified into the distribution of goods rather than the mere shipping of them and gradually disposed of its fleet of ships: the focus was on food wholesale distribution and by 1978 the company had over 100 warehouses across the UK and trading as Booker, McConnell Ltd.[3]

Among other interests, it operated the sugar industry in Guyana (British Guiana before independence in 1966), running five Booker line ships, until it was nationalised c. 1970. After six months Booker was called back to market the sugar. Booker had a long history of exploitation of sugar workers through the indentured labour system during the 19th and 20th centuries. At its peak it controlled 75% of the sugar industry in British Guiana and was so powerful that a common joke was to refer to the country as 'Booker's Guiana'. In 1952 Jock Campbell took over the Chairmanship of the company and his Fabian social politics transformed it dramatically into a benevolent force providing major benefits for sugar workers. Jock Campbell was also instrumental in the setting up of the Booker's Author Division, which sponsored the Booker Prize.[4]

In 1986, the company set up a short lived co-venture between the directors of Siriol Animation to create Kalisto Ltd.. Kalisto also developed a show called Space Baby (which eventually became Fantastic Max), along with another series called Satellite City (which was co-produced with Fairwater Films) and the animated film The Little Engine That Could. Kalisto barely lasted a year before Booker bought the rights back.[5]

In 2000 Booker was purchased by Iceland Supermarkets, via its Big Food Group vehicle.[6] Then in 2005 Big Food Group was in turn bought by acquisitive Icelandic group Baugur,[7] which split Booker and Iceland again into different companies.[8] In June 2007 Booker reversed into AIM-listed wholesaler of groceries Blueheath, to form Booker Group plc.[9]

Baugur sold all its assets in Booker Cash & Carry in June 2008[10] only weeks after its founder was found guilty of accounting irregularities.[11] Baugur collapsed in February 2009 amidst the Icelandic financial crisis.[12]

In 2009, Booker opened a store in Mumbai, and plans to have 20 cash and carry stores across India by 2017.[13]

On 30 May 2012, Metro Group of Germany sold the 30 Makro UK stores and all operational assets to Booker Group Plc in return for 9.99% of Booker's share capital, plus £15.8 million in cash: although the merger was referred to the Office of Fair Trading it was cleared by the Competition Commission in April 2013.[14]

Booker Author's Division

Main pages: Category:Booker authors' division and Man Booker Prize

During Jock Campbell's chairmanship of the company, then known as Booker-McConnell, he was also instrumental in the setting up of the Booker's Author Division, which acquired rights over a number of well-known authors' works, such as Dennis Wheatley and the 64% stake in Agatha Christie's works not controlled by her family. In 1998 Agatha Christie's stakeholding was sold to Chorion for £10million, selling it on themselves in 2012 to Acorn Media UK.[15] The division also co-founded and sponsored the highly prestigious Man Booker Prize for literature in 1968, originally known as the Booker-McConnell Prize, the Booker Prize, or simply, "the Booker". This was transferred to the independent Booker Prize Foundation in 2002 and became sponsored by the Man Group plc, who opted to retain the well known "Booker" name.[4]

Chairmen of the Author's division have included Charles W(illiam) Tyrell (1960s and 1970s), Dennis H. Joss (1970s and 1980s) and Agatha Christie's grandson Mathew C(aradoc) T(homas) Prichard (1990s and 2000s).[16][17]

Operations

The company supplies approximately 326,000 catering businesses and 78,000 independent retailers; it also operates cash-and-carry branches throughout the United Kingdom (as well as a few in India) and operates a national delivery service in the UK.[18]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Preliminary Results 2014" (PDF). Booker Group. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Booker Line 1835 – 1978, Page 2
  3. ↑ Booker Line 1835 – 1978, Page16
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Man Booker Prize Retrieved 3 September 2009
  5. ↑ "Booker PLC". IMBd. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  6. ↑ Iceland buys Booker Eurofood, 8 June 2000
  7. ↑ Baugur buys UK's Big Food Group BBC News, 19 December 2004
  8. ↑ "BFG agrees to Baugur bid". Food & Drink. 20 December 2004. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  9. ↑ Fletcher, Richard (12 May 2007). "Baugur profits plunge by more than two-thirds Box Head arrow to line with head". London: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  10. ↑ Baugur sells Booker stake as part of focus on retail, Retail Week, 24 June 2008, retrieved 27 December 2008
  11. ↑ "Baugur boss loses court appeal". Reuters. 6 June 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2010.
  12. ↑ "Hamleys investor seeks protection". BBC News. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2009.
  13. ↑ "UK's cash & carry plans 20 India stores in 5 years". Business Standard. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
  14. ↑ A report on the completed acquisition by Booker Group PLC of Makro Holding Limited
  15. ↑ "Chorion grabs the Booker prize". BBC News. 3 June 1998.
  16. ↑ Jane's Major Companies of Europe. Jane's Information Group.
  17. ↑ The Directory of Directors: A List of the Directors of the Principal Public and Private Companies in the United Kingdom with the Names of the Concerns with which They are Associated. Reed Telepublishing.
  18. ↑ "What We Do". bookergroup.com. Retrieved 24 March 2015.

External links