The Bargain Booze owner has topped up its empire with the £6m acquisition of convenience store retailer GTN.
Conviviality Retail, which bought the Wine Rack chain in September, plans to rebrand the majority of GTN’s 37 stores, which are mostly based in the East Midlands and Yorkshire, as Bargain Booze or Bargain Booze Select Convenience.
Diana Hunter, chief executive of Conviviality, said the acquisition gave the company a bigger presence in parts of the country where it had previously had few stores. She said the new stores would “provide a significant growth opportunity”.
Chesterfield-based GTN, which operated Spar-branded and GT-branded newsagents, generated £57m in revenue in the year to 30 June and made a pre-tax profit of £400,000.
Conviviality, which floated on the London stock market last year, said it expected to generate more profit from the stores by combining buying power, head office operations and marketing with the rest of its business.
The company spent a total of £7.6m on GTN then sold £1.6m of freehold property back to its owners.GTN, which opened its first shop in Sheffield in 1898, was owned by its management team who bought it out in 2008 in a deal backed by Royal Bank of Scotland.
