The UK’s sixth largest supermarket will also rebrand 29 of the Kwik Save stores in Scotland into its own chain, at a cost of £20-30 million. The remaining supermarkets will close by the end of the year, with the cost of withdrawing the poorly located stores to be covered by the sale of the East Kildare depot.
A Somerfield company review on Scotland concluded it would be sensible to move away from Kwik Save, since sales in the local stores were dragging down performance. However, Somerfield remains committed to the Kwik Save brand in England and to keeping a presence in Scotland via its acquisition of Aberness, the Scottish retailer. Executive chairman John von Spreckelsen said there were no further plans to close the chain in the UK but would continue to invest in the 583 Kwik Save stores outside of Scotland. “ We have focused on those areas of the UK where our target customer matches the local demographics. This is part of an ongoing process,” he said. “It is unfortunate that these changes will impact upon staff and customers… we are confident that these decisions will strengthen our business and provide us with a solid platform for future growth.”
Stores in the South West and London are rumoured for conversion to Somerfield, or eventual closure as the UK retailer focuses on its core regions in the North West, North East and Wales. Somerfield has already refurbished one-third of its Kwik Save stores; with the extra Scottish stores, numbers will increase from 54 to 83 after rebranding.
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