Spar on track to pass 100-store mark

Published on Tuesday 5 April 2011 16:27

SPAR Scotland owner CJ Lang will take its managed estate past the 100-stores mark after yesterday revealing it is in talks to buy ten stores in Dundee and Fife.

The Dundee-based firm has operated as Spar Scotland's wholesaler and master franchisee since 1993, running 95 stores under the brand and supplying goods to a further 300 shops. Now the family-run business, which traces its roots back to 1919, is poised to buy Dundee-based AM Landsburgh (AML).

AML owns three Spar shops in Dundee, two each in Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy and one-a-piece in Ladybank, Thornton and St Andrews.

CJ Lang refused to comment on the price it would pay for AML, a third-generation family-run business that was founded in 1950.

In the year to 31 March, 2010, AML made a pre-tax profit of 20,000 on sales of 9.8 million, down from a profit of 31,000 on sales of 10m in 2009, according to accounts filed at Companies House. AML said it had invested in the business to meet "increased competition".

CJ Lang - which has about 2,000 staff, including 400 at its head office and distribution centre - claims that Spar accounts for about 45 per cent of the Scottish convenience store market.