Sunday, January 13, 2008

Somerfield up for sale?

Nairnites are no strangers to waking up to find a new logo above the entrance to our one and only supermarket. There is a suggestion however that we could soon have a sense of déjà vu with Morrisons possibly being one of the potential buyers of the company, others names being touted by the Observer are Asda and Sainsbury’s.

‘The expressions of interest are understood to have led its shareholders - a consortium of Tchenguiz, Apax and Barclays Capital - to consider selling the 900-branch business. Any deal could be worth in excess of £1.8bn.’

More here. No doubt the Highland Council are the people to ask about whether this has implications for the town centre redevelopment. Anyway, please, please, please Asda…


Thanks to' it' who wrote in with the link and a fear of Morrisons returning.

3 comments:

Bill said...

I hadn't heard this rumour, but wonder whether even the redeveloped Somerfield would be anything like big enough for Asda - surely they'd go for the edge of town thing we heard about a few months back at the Industrial Estate?

Of course, if it is Asda, perhaps they are thinking of competing nationwide with Tesco 'Metro', its town-centre brand, where most of Somerfield stores are located.

Sainsbury would be good - a cut above anything else in the area, if not quite in the same class as Waitrose of course. I think Somerfield is a lot better here than Safeway or Morrisons ever were, though.

Nairn said...

I cannot say I am thrilled by the prospect of any supermarket

http://www.geography-site.co.uk/pages/citizenship/supermarkets.html

shows some of the good, bad, and ugly prospects that they bring

In common with every town on the planet we need an outlet selling local food. Not a once a month farmers market but near if not everyday opening trading of basic foodstuffs

A shame they didn't revamp some of the staff but I quite like the new look co-op in Nairn. The range may not be huge but at least it is ethical

Graisg said...

Most Nairnites seem to go to Tescos in Forres or Inverness. If everyone suddenly decided to use Somerfield and the Co-op there would be Northern Rock style queues just to get an empty trolley. An edge of town supermarket will come and it may reduce quite a few carbon foot-prints. What could be a real laugh is if whichever company was wanting to get into the proposed retail park opposite the industrial estate happens to be the same one that buys Somerfield.
I too wish we could have a weekly market, after all there is that object outside the courthouse called the 'mercat cross' isn't there? I'm a bit dubious about some of the traders that crop up at farmers' markets though or perhaps I've got an old-fashioned idea of what a farmer looks like.