Co-op Group Somerfield disposals; an idea

18
07
08

Co-op Group Somerfield disposals; an idea

tagged with:

Up and down the country local authorities, independent retailers and residents complain that rents are squeezing out interesting independent retailers and creating "Clone Town Britain".

Well, I have an idea. This week the Co-operative Group agreed terms to acquire Somerfield supermarkets. There are some, say management, which directly compete with existing Co-op shops and so one or other may be up for sale. One of these is in Headington in Oxford where there is a fairly recently refurbished MidCounties Co-op store on one side of the road and a Somerfield on the other.

Some people are all excited that someone like Waitrose might step up and buy it - and in a sense there could be no better buyer as far as the Co-op goes - the other end of the market and a sort of a worker co-operative in its own right.

Somerfield supermarket in Headington But as I was in a social enterprise meeting earlier today my mind wandered to Headington supermarkets (!) and I wondered if, given it is the Co-operative who have bought them, there might be mileage in proposing a sale to a more local group - perhaps a permanent base for an indoor/farmers' market, or a space which, like the Covered Market in town, could provide "protected space" for independent retailers we wanted to see revived in Headington, set up say as a secondary co-op or a community land trust type structure (or even bought by MidCounties from Co-op Group) enabling local people a say in its management, policies and ownership.

It would require some work of course actually to work out whether the relatively recent decline of independent fresh food retailers in Headington for example has been, as often claimed, because of rent and rates issues where such a facility might be able to help by lowering the cost of access. But if it does seem viable would it be worth trying?

Or would Waitrose or Sainsbury still be a more attractive offering?

localism, mutualism

Trackback URL for this post:

http://jockcoats.me/trackback/906

Comments

Submitted by Mark Wadsworth (not verified) on July 18, 2008 - 19:16.

I covered this topic a while back. For some reason, retail mergers never go well ... see the Somerfield/Kwik Save and Morrisons/Safeway debacles, or Tesco and M&S expansion abroad, or the Sainsbury/Homebase takeover (Sainsbury sold Homebase again a few years later, having bought it from, rather bizarrely, Ladbrokes when it was still called Texas), the Woolworths/Kingfisher demerger (continued page 94). So this does not bode well for the Co-op.

Submitted by The Poet Laura-eate (not verified) on July 19, 2008 - 13:48.

Great idea Jock. But wouldn't they be more likely to sell it off?

Submitted by Jock on July 19, 2008 - 15:29.

I'm not asking "them" (being Co-operative Group) to do anyone any favours actually. The best outcome from the point of view of this idea would I suspect, be that Co-op Group sell it to MidCounties Co-op and they help us create a new Headington shopping centre/market and take the rent from it.

I agree, especially with one of Britain's cleverest property magnates selling it to them, that the Co-op Group will want to dispose of the surplus sites as soon as possible.

I've extended my idea anyway - the biggest problem in Headington centre is I believe the landlords who appear to have no interest in developing their properties to create an environment in which modern shopping can survive and thrive, so I reckon taking over Somerfield ought to be the first stage of a plan to assemble a site that would include all the shops and flats along the London Road and Old High Street frontages from Somerfield's entrance round to the Bury Knowle Park entrance. I already have a very beautiful idea in my head for a mixed development including arcades, new flats ovelooking the park and London Road and the "covered market" type idea roundn the back where Somerfield no is.