Tuesday 23rd November 2010
Batleys Acquires Martex From C J Lang
Batleys acquired the Martex group of three cash and carry branches and its foodservice operation from C J Lang, the Scottish food industry company for an undisclosed sum.
The three branches in Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth will become known as Batleys Cash and Carry and will now bring the group?s total to 7 in Scotland.
Martex will be included in the Batleys portfolio, part of the Bestway Group, which recently acquired Bellevue Cash and Carry in Scotland. C J Lang is one of Scotland’s largest privately owned independent family businesses built on a foundation of traditional values, much the same as Bestway, Batleys and Bellevue.
The Bestway group chief executive, Zameer Choudrey said, “We are delighted to welcome everyone at Martex into the Bestway Group. This move will help us to strengthen the Group’s position in Scotland, an important market to us and where we have really been under represented for some time. With the addition of the new branches in Aberdeen, Dundee and Perth as well as our existing ones in Stirling, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leith, we will now have a current total of 7 cash and carry depots in Scotland. The inclusion of the Foodservice business in what we have bought will also help us to grow this increasingly important aspect of our services.
“We very much welcome the opportunity to bring to our many potential customers in Scotland the very best prices, with increased value and the best possible service.
“Right now the emphasis is very much business as usual for the Martex customers and Staff; we will now be conducting a full strategic review of our increased business in Scotland before we consider if any changes are to be made in how we operate currently.
”This move further endorses our group business strategy of helping the independents to continue to build their businesses still further.”
C J Lang was first established in Scotland in 1919 and has an extensive group of services within the food services industry including cash and carry, a retail club for independent retailers and a catering services operation including equipment.
The C J Lang existing relationship with the Spar symbol group and Landmark is not included in this acquisition.