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 Logo used since 2008 | |
| Formerly |
|
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1872; 154 years ago (1872) Maidenhead,Berkshire, England |
| Founder | John Budgen |
| Headquarters | Harefield,Greater London, England |
Area served | England andWales |
| Parent | Booker Group, owned byTesco plc |
| Website | budgens |
Budgens Stores Limited,trading asBudgens, is a chain ofgrocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen,[2] who opened the first shop inMaidenhead,Berkshire, England, and was incorporated as aprivate limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary and retail ofBooker Group, part ofTesco plc. The shops are privately owned but operate under the Budgens name on condition they buy exclusively from Booker.
The first Budgens shop was opened in 1872, by John Budgen. The first few shops were small local grocery stores, which expanded across the south of England.
In October 1997, Budgens acquired the 57-shop network of the American7-Eleven chain in the United Kingdom, re-branding them with the concept name 'B2'.[3][4] By June 1998, it was clear that the name was not popular with customers[citation needed] and the 30 shops that were outside London began trading under the 'Budgens' fascia.[5] The 'B2' branded shops in London were then changed to 'Budgens Express' before finally reverting to the 'Budgens' brand.[citation needed]
In June 2002, the company was purchased by the IrishMusgrave Group.[6] Two years later, they started selling off Budgens shops; the largest shops were disposed of on the open market, with shops in places includingTadley andMildenhall going to larger shop chains.[citation needed] Other shops were divested to independent retailers, includingJempsons & Tout and CT Baker, which continued as franchises under the 'Budgens' name. Musgrave Group also franchised the Budgens brand to new retailers, leading to more shop openings in the independent sector and expanding the brand to many petrol station forecourts.[citation needed]
In 2007, the divestment of the original Budgens shops to independent retailers was complete,[7] although by March 2009, a few underperforming Budgens stores had been returned to Musgrave.[citation needed] A further eight stores were acquired in 2009 by a Budgens franchise partner from theCo-op, which had acquired them on taking over theSomerfield group, but was instructed to dispose of them by theOffice of Fair Trading. These stores closed just eight months later.[8] The former Co-op branch in New Invention nearWillenhall, which was one of the stores acquired, has since reopened as anAldi.
In May 2015, Musgrave Group confirmed that it had reached an agreement to sell Budgens andLondis for £40 million to the wholesalerBooker Group, subject to regulatory approval.[9]
In January 2017 Tesco launched a takeover bid for Booker, including the Budgens fascia.[10] This acquisition was completed in March 2018.
Budgens stores range in size from around 140m² to around 1,200m², and therefore fall into theconvenience store size range or the bottom end of thesupermarket size range. According to retail analystsTNS Worldpanel, Budgens ranked 13th in the grocery sector in the United Kingdom in December 2004, with a market share of 0.4%.[citation needed]
The first two Scottish shops opened in July 2016. These were bought fromthe Co-operative Group, and had previously been branded asSomerfield andSafeway.[citation needed] They are located inPaisley andPrestwick. The Paisley shop closed later that year. In 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012, Budgens was votedFresh Foods Convenience Retailer of the Year in the company owned sector at theRetail Industry Awards.[11][12]
The largest Budgens shop is in the town ofHolt,Norfolk, with just over 13,000 square feet/1,207m. The original shop was destroyed by fire on 20 June 2020.[13] The current shop was opened on 30 March 2023,[14] and is a completely new building. The approved rebuilding plans required the shop to be of a size and design to match the destroyed building; the internal layout has been significantly altered with a change in services offered, but still includes a sub-post office counter.
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As the supermarket concept developed in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, the appearance of the brand names developed as well and were designed to be colourful, eye catching and distinctive. Budgens adopted a colour scheme during the end of the 1960s, which incorporated orange as the base colour, very popular at the time. The shops were branded simply as 'Budgen', a progression from 'Budgen & Co. Ltd.', in a unique white font on the orange background.
A distinctive logo was also used for the 'Budgen' branding, which incorporated atulip (symbolising freshness) depicted in orange and white on a brown rounded square background. The orange 'Budgen' corporate identity was used from 1969–1989.
Budgen was subsequently rebranded 'Budgens' around 1990. The orange gave way to a white background, the tulip logo disappeared and the font was changed to a handwriting style scribble, in orange, underlined in green. This was used until around 1997, when the identity was replaced with a dark green colour scheme with 'Budgens' in white capital letters. This identity was later replaced again with a lighter two-tone green background, with the 'Budgens' device now depicted in a lower case font.
9. Photographic reference of the beginning of 1969 'Budgen Supermarket' corporate identity – 2 Hitchin Street, Biggleswade, 1 January 1970:https://web.archive.org/web/20140429220441/http://www.historypin.com/attach/uid81/map/#!/geo:52.086119,-0.265336/zoom:15/dialog:9162/tab:details/
| 'Big four' | |
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| Convenience | |
| Discount | |
| Frozen specialists | |
| Online | |
| Premium | |
| Regional | |
