Safeway has stepped into the Northern Ireland market in a joint venture which will see the company spending £150m on store development.
Its partner is Fitzwilton Group, multi-millionaire Tony O’Reilly’s investment vehicle. Safeway is buying a 50% stake in the 15 biggest stores owned by Wellworth, Northern Ireland’s second largest supermarket chain. The deal will allow it to pick the best sites from Wellworth’s 36 stores.
Safeway and Fitzwilton are investing £10m each in the venture which will then use debt to revamp and extend the 15 stores and build a further four at a total cost of £150m. All the Wellworth stores will be converted to the Safeway livery by the autumn.
- Financial Times 20/06/97 page 19
- The Daily Telegraph 20/06/97 page 34
- The Times 20/06/97 page 26
- The Independent 20/06/97 page 24
- The Guardian 20/06/97 page 25
