It seems the Co-op will buy Somerfield for £1.6 billion this coming week. Such predictions have come and gone before but one of the Sunday dead-tree weeklies is pretty bullish about this coming to fruition. So what happens next, if the Co-op buy the Nairn Somerfield site will they go ahead with the development, sell the supermarket on to another store, or even shut it down? Anyone placing bets on the new supermarket going ahead in the next six months?
The Mail on Sunday says: ' The Co-op plans to hive off as many as 150 Somerfield stores to rivals, which could include the lucrative sale of some of the freehold stores that account for about a quarter of the chain.'
Somerfield today, Co-op next week, someone else the week after?
Another interesting quote,' A clause in the agreement is understood to offer a further potential windfall for the original Somerfield investors should the Co-op raise more that £300 million from the sale of the stores and the petrol stations.'
The Gurn contends that the best bet for our community is to continue the bonding process with Sainsbury's and do all we can to ease the path for the construction of their intended store and just wait and see what, if anything happens, with Somerfield or whoever their owners may or may not be in the near future.
2 comments:
I'm a former Nairnite, my family still live there. Is there still a Co-op on the high street? Some of your posts mentioned Somerfield is the only supermarket in the town. I'm guessing there's not as it would have been mentioned in relation to them buying Somerfield. I remember about 10 years ago discussions about Co-op buying the Safeways store but that never happened then.
Hello Caspar, yes there is a co-op on the High Street so this take-over raises interesting questions. Somerfield is the only supermarket in town but compared to what a lot of other similar size towns have it is a small store.
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