LONDON, Aug. 30 -- British retail group Argyll sold 151 small grocery stores in England and Wales to German retail consortium Spar Tuesday for 19.7 million pounds ($30 million). Argyll, owner of the supermarket chain Safeway, said the smaller stores were more suitable for Spar's town center retailing style.
The much much larger Safeway supermarkets account for 90 percent of Argyll's turnover. The 123 Lo-Cost budget stores and 28 Presto stores sold to Spar have a total sales area of 324,000 feet and annual sales totalling 150 million pounds ($225 million). Chief Executive Colin Smith said Argyll had discussed at length the fate of the 151 stores. 'We concluded that they do not have a long term future within the group,' he said. 'We are very pleased to have sold these to the Spar consortium as ongoing businesses, thereby ensuring the continued employment of staff.' Argyll said the sale followed an ongoing review of the Lo-Cost operation, although 144 stores under that name will remain in the group.
