The UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has today unconditionally cleared the acquisition of Musgrave Retail Partners GB Ltd (Musgrave) by Booker Group plc (Booker). Musgrave and Booker are both grocery wholesale suppliers. Collectively they supply nearly 5,000 convenience stores across the UK through their Premier and Londis symbol groups. Musgrave also operates some larger grocery stores through its Budgens brand. Frontier (Europe) advised Booker throughout the CMA’s merger investigation.

The CMA found that the merging parties will continue to face competitive pressure from remaining symbol group wholesalers and other wholesale suppliers. In addition, the CMA found that the parties are not particularly close competitors and member stores could switch to alternative sources of wholesale supply.

Frontier (Europe) regularly advises companies and regulators on competition and retail issues.

For more information, please contact Goran Serdarevic on g.serdarevic@frontier-economics.com, or call (0)20 7031 7000.