Booker boss hails record year

The boss of Booker has brushed aside criticism of the firm’s potential tie-up with Tesco as the wholesaler unveiled “market-beating” profits.

CEO Charles Wilson said the group’s record annual performance showed it was not fazed by the £3.7bn deal, despite some Tesco shareholders branding the takeover a “distraction” for the supermarket giant and urging it to scrap the move.

While Mr Wilson said the investor concern was for Tesco bosses to handle, he told the Press Association: “What it shows is that if anyone had worried about distraction on the Booker side, then we have done a good job of maintaining business as usual as these results are market-beating.”

Annual pre-tax profits jumped 15 per cent to £174m to March 24 this year, with convenience store sales at Budgens and Londis more than doubling to £700m.

Like-for-like sales also lifted by 0.5 per cent over the period, while revenues in the first seven weeks of the current financial year were outstripping last year’s performance.

However, it said tighter regulation on cigarette and tobacco and shifting commodity prices were making trading tougher in a “challenging market”.

Mr Wilson said it had been “another good year” for the group and looked set to complete the Tesco deal by late this year or early next year.

He said: “Customer satisfaction was strong.”