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Owned and managed by the Henderson Group since 2019, JD Hunter & Co. employs 145 people from the local community, all of whom have been informed that they will remain in continuous employment under the new ownership.

The Creighton family operates three well known independent businesses under the SPAR and EUROSPAR brands and have bought the Armagh business outright for an undisclosed sum.

Ron Whitten, Chief Financial Officer at Henderson Group said: “The Creighton family have been highly successful, award-winning independent retailers working with Hendersons for many years. We have enjoyed a close working relationship during this time, and welcome the news of this acquisition, which consolidates our partnership even further.

“Since we took over the operation in 2019, we have invested considerably in the business, making it a sound prospect for Creightons to continue with that success. We’re delighted that another family business will take over the reins and continue the ethos which has been built within the local community and its many organisations and partnerships.”

Niall Creighton said: “We are honoured to have the opportunity to take over a store that has been family-run since the early 1900s, which mirrors our own family business, which was established by my father 86 years ago in 1936.

“Expanding the Creightons company name, which has become synonymous with community retailing over the years, has always been our long-term strategy, and we look forward to bringing even more to the community, always keeping locally sourced products and partnerships at the forefront of the business.”

The supermarket will continue to trade as JD Hunter & Co., joining the Creighton family’s repertoire as their fourth retail business, alongside Creightons EUROSPAR of Finaghy, Creightons EUROSPAR of Balmoral and Creightons SPAR of Blacks Road.

The Creighton family have been trading in the Belfast area since 1936 at their Finaghy store, which now stands as a South Belfast landmark. Creightons EUROSPAR of Finaghy houses a Post Office, deli, florist, carwash and fuel forecourt, along with Creightons butchery products and Creightons own prepared meals, and takes great pride in sourcing all its products locally.

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The acquisition of Poundshop.com is the next step in the transformation of Poundland and will provide the infrastructure to power a national roll-out of its own pilot ecommerce operation, the company said.

Founded in 2014, Poundshop.com has grown to be the UK’s largest online-only value retailer. Poundshop.com has almost 400,000 customers across the UK and 65 colleagues at its distribution centre and head office in Wednesbury, West Midlands, just a few miles from Poundland’s own customer support centre in Walsall.

Poundshop.com chairman, Steve Smith, and CEO Chris Maddox will act in an advisory capacity to help smooth the integration which will be led by Poundland retail and transformation director Austin Cooke who in turn will lead the day-to-day operation of Poundland’s online business.

The deal includes Poundshop.com’s intellectual property, its tried and tested online platform, the picking and fulfilment operations in Wednesbury and its customer database.

Poundland will retain all of the current Poundshop.com colleagues and during the integration process Poundshop.com will continue fulfilling customers’ orders as normal.

Expansion

Run by an experienced management team, Poundshop.com has expanded rapidly and last year alone saw sales more than double. It will continue trading under its own brand in the immediate term and will benefit from Poundland’s extended range and purchasing power to bring customers even more choice and value.

Poundland plans to build on the experience of Poundshop.com to develop further and scale up its own online operation which has started as a pilot in selected postcodes in Birmingham and Walsall and has now been successfully extended across the Midlands and into South Yorkshire.

Demand for Poundland’s pilot online service has been strong and has created excitement across the country for customers eager to access the service.

Helped by this acquisition, Poundland plans to widen its online offer, both in terms of ranges, adding PEP&CO clothing and homewares, and geographically, including extending beyond the UK and offering a Dealz online service for The Republic of Ireland.

After China and the US, the UK is the third-largest ecommerce market in the world, according to eMarketer’s research in 2022.  It has always enjoyed a high penetration of online shoppers alongside physical retail which still accounts for the majority of sales.

The acquisition will accelerate the pace of the company’s plans to make its offer available on the web and means customers nationwide can look forward to shopping with Poundland at the click of a button in the near future.

The rollout of the online offer complements the opening of new stores and the expansion of ranges – from PEP&CO clothing to chilled and frozen food – as Poundland brings value for money shopping to even more customers at a time when every pound counts.

Barry Williams, Poundland managing director, said: “It’s great to warmly welcome the Poundshop.com team to Poundland. This acquisition puts power and pace behind our aspirations to make our amazing products and value available to customers across the UK and Ireland, however they choose to shop.”

Poundshop.com sells branded consumer products priced between £1 and £5 and typically below high street prices.

While it appeals to a broad range of shoppers and age groups, three quarters of its customers are female, and is particularly popular with 25–44-year-olds.

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The Whitbread Group, who own Costa, today announced that it has entered into an agreement for the sale of Costa Limited. The sale represents an enterprise value of £3.8bn at completion, after adjusting for estimated transaction costs and separation costs, demonstrating a multiple of 16.4x Costa within 2018.

The transition period is expected to be 12-24 months, with Dominic Paul remaining Costa Managing Director and no other changes to the Whitbread executive team.

It has also been reported that transaction and separation costs of approximately £100m, with the appropriate routes to return proceeds considered at completion. However, some pension trustees and some debt providers will require consultation.

In the proposed sale of Costa document there have been several noticeable features including a nod to the brand recognition that Costa holds, giving them strength, multi-channel presence and international growth potential.

The transaction was unanimously agreed by Whitbread Board to be in the best interests of shareholders net cash proceeds intended to be returned to shareholders.

The sale appears to come at a time of financial instability for Costa, with them stating that a significant majority of net cash proceeds intend to be returned to shareholders.

Whitbread also explained the deal will reduce financial indebtedness and make a contribution to the pension fund, which will both provide headroom for further expansion of Premier Inn in the UK and Germany.

This comes as no surprise as, currently, Whitbread have 75,000 rooms in almost 800 hotels in the UK, Germany and the Middle East, operating under the Premier Inn brand.

Coupled with its 49 percent investment in Pure, a London-based healthy eating quick service restaurant business with 15 stores, they are focusing their business efforts in what they believe are more viable options.

Alison Brittain, Whitbread chief executive, spoke about the deal with optimism that the Coca-Cola brand would be able to take them into a new era. She stated that:

“The announcement today represents a substantial premium to the value that would have been created through the demerger of the business and we expect to return a significant majority of net proceeds to shareholders.”

Alison went on to speak about how this deal would help the business financially and which will provide additional headroom for the expansion of Premier Inn.

The chief executive spoke about the 267 year history of Whitbread, which saw them acquire Costa for £19m in 1995 and saw it expand to the coffee giant it is today. This development of the brand means that Alison would appear to have no regrets about the sale.

Coca-Cola’s global scale, product and distribution capabilities have been seen as an advantage and a way to continually improve the Costa brand, with Alison stating: “This combination will ensure new product development, continued growth in the UK and more rapid expansion overseas.”

When looking at this from a Coca-Cola perspective, this is a way for the drink company to finally corner the hot beverage market.

James Quincey, Coca-Cola president and CEO, commented that, “Hot beverages are one of the few remaining segments of the total beverage landscape where Coca-Cola does not have a global brand. Costa gives us access to this market through a strong coffee platform.”

Coffee is one of the fastest-growing beverage categories in the world, at 6 percent, so the decision to integrate into the market now is logical from Coca-Cola.

James went on to state that “So, Coca-Cola and Costa have remarkably complementary businesses. Costa offers Coca-Cola the best opportunities to create value in coffee. We can be better together.

This is not an acquisition where we’re looking for places to save costs in the business. We’re buying Costa to grow the business and our participation in the category.”

This deal, financially, and in terms of progression, makes sense for all parties involved. Costa are maintaining the loyalty to their stakeholders and employees through what appears to be a financial bump.

This is also a logical step for Coca-Cola in being finally able to be forefront of the hot beverage market throughout the UK, with an already established brand.

View Costa Infographic (PDF)

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