CJ Lang & Son Ltd, the wholesaler for Spar in Scotland, has announced the acquisition of Glasgow-based convenience chain ScotFresh Group Ltd.
ScotFresh is an award-winning independent retail operation based in Glasgow and the Scottish central belt. The acquisition will see the nine ScotFresh branded stores and 130 staff move over to CJ Lang & Son.
Colin McLean, of Dundee-based CJ Lang & Son, said: “We are delighted to confirm that we have acquired the ScotFresh Group of nine stores. ScotFresh has an excellent reputation in the industry and is a well-recognised brand with significant customer loyalty and strong relationships with suppliers.
“For now, the stores will remain branded as ScotFresh, and we will run the operation as a separate business unit within our own business so we can share best practice. We look forward to welcoming the ScotFresh management team and all store colleagues into the CJ Lang family.”
READ MORE: CJ Lang reports further rise in profits
Founded by chairman Shaun Marwaha’s parents Jack and Rita in the east end of Glasgow in 1983, the business has stores in the city’s west end, Riddrie, Cardonald, Scotstoun and Denny as well as Irvine, Carluke and Dumfries. The stores have been trading with Booker.
Mr Marwaha said: “We are very pleased that our business has been acquired by CJ Lang & Son Ltd.
"It is important to us that we sold to a business who understands customer service, knows their customers and delivers great service."
READ MORE: Convenience store in Scottish town sold by leading independent player
He also said: "CJ Lang is a fantastic Scottish family business, and we know the ScotFresh stores and colleagues are in great hands. CJ Lang is passionate about working with local suppliers and offer great prices on a vast array of essential food and drink items, a range of services and affordable, great quality food-to-go.
"A huge thank you to all staff and colleagues who have worked with us over the years. Your support has been invaluable, and I very much hope you are looking forward to this new and exciting chapter."
READ MORE: Glasgow wholesaler in 'transformational' Renfrew move
The ScotFresh stores will retain their existing branding and will be operated as a separate business unit, initially, whilst being fully serviced and supported by CJ Lang’s central support teams and their distribution centre based in Dundee.
David Higgins, Cornerstone, advised ScotFresh during the acquisition.
Mr Higgins said: "The Marwaha family have become friends over the years and it was important for them to know that the business was going to another company that has strong family values."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here