Wine Rack and Bargain Booze saved by Bestway

By Harpers Editorial

Published: 08 April, 2018

Conviviality Plc’s retail division has been bought by Bestway, in a £7 million deal, saving around 2,000 jobs that had been put at serious risk by the collapse of the drinks giant.

The buuyout, overseen by PwC and announced on Friday, means that all the ex-Conviviality retail brands, including Wine Rack, Bargain Booze, WS Retail and Select Convenience, are now wholly owned by Bestway, bringing some 800 drinks retail outlets under the umbrella of one of the UKs biggest food wholesalers.

The news comes soon after last week’s purchase of Bibendum and Matthew Clark by Magners owner C&C Group, which also took on board related wholesale brands such as Walker & Wodehouse and events company Peppermint as part of a deal for the entire wholesale division of Conviviality.

Both were pre-pack sales, allowing for the quick sale of the individual divisions of Conviviality, with the speed of those sales in many ways mirroring the extraordinarily swift chain of events leading to the collapse of Conviviality itself.

In total, PwC estimates that collectively up to 4,000 jobs have been saved, with the crucial return of some stability to the varied former facets of Conviviality now able to allow those companies and their new owners to start rebuilding relationships with customers and suppliers.

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