Bestway Retail is to sell 37 of its company-owned stores across the UK.
The selection of Bargain Booze, Wine Rack, Select Convenience and Central Convenience stores are being sold individually, which could generate up to £1.6m for Bestway Retail.
All of the stores for sale were part of Bestway’s £7.25m acqisition of Conviviality Retail in 2018.
Bestway Wholesale subsequently created Bestway Retail, which has 180 stores in its portfolio.
The retail units are being marketed by Christie & Co under the project title ‘Project Endeavour’ and are being sold on a leasehold basis.
Select Convenience in Forest Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, is the most expensive of the 37 with a list price of £150,000.
So far 100 potential buyers have registered their interest and up to 15 bids have been submitted.
Despite the majority of stores having seen record uplifts while trading through the coronavirus crisis, a number of them were trading at a loss pre-April 2020.
Bestway MD Dawood Pervez told The Grocer it reviewed its portfolio ahead of two new format trials launching in September.
These will include an off licence-led convenience format for Bargain Booze along with an upmarket off licence and drink-in experience for Wine Rack.
“It was always our plan to streamline our portfolio,” said Pervez . “We are continually assessing our estate to have stores fit for our format aspirations. We remain committed to corporate stores and would still be operating c140 stores if all of these were disposed. The process is being undertaken to ensure that our estate is in the best possible shape for our format ambitions.”
Pervez confirmed he expected a large number of the 37 stores to continue to be supplied by Bestway.
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