Budgens

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Budgens is a chain of foodstores in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1872 by John Budgen^[1], who opened the first store at Maidenhead. Budgens supermarket chain operates over 227 stores and employs over 6,000 staff.

The stores range in size from around 1,500 square feet (140 m²) to around 10,000 square feet (900 m²), and therefore fall into the convenience store size range and the bottom end of the supermarket size range, as these two terms are used in the United Kingdom. According to retail analysts TNS Worldpanel, Budgens ranked 13th in the United Kingdom grocery sector as of December 2004, with a market share of 0.4% .

In 2002 the company was purchased by the Irish Musgrave Group.

In 2004 the Musgrave Group decided to sell their Budgens stores to independent retailers, like Tout, and franchise the Budgens brand, leading to more store openings. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 Budgens was voted number one convenience retailer of the year.

In 2007, the divestment of the original Budgens stores to independent retailers was completed,^[2] but as of March 2009 a few Budgens stores had been returned to Musgraves due to them failing to perform under the incumbent franchisee.^{[citation needed]} A further eight stores were bought in 2009 from the The Co-operative Group (who acquired them during the take-over of the Somerfield group but were instructed to dispose of them by the Office of Fair Trading).^{[citation needed]} Once these new stores have been re-fitted and stocked as Budgens Stores they will be divested.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

^ ‘Supermarkets’, Competition Commission report presented to Parliament in October 2000, chapter 5, page 72
^ Musgrave group press release accessed 20 March 2009