Budgens

Budgens Stores Ltd, trading as Budgens, is a chain of grocery stores in the United Kingdom. The business was founded in 1872 by John Budgen,[1] who opened the first shop in Maidenhead, Berkshire and was incorporated as a private limited company on 28 May 1962. The company is a subsidiary and retail fascia of Booker Group, part of Tesco plc.

Budgen Stores Ltd
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
Founded1872
FounderJohn Budgen
HeadquartersHarefield, Greater London, England
Area served
England and Wales
ParentBooker Group merged by Tesco
Websitewww.budgens.co.uk

History

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 55-shop network of 7-Eleven shops in the United Kingdom, re-branding them with the concept name 'B2'. By June 1998, it was clear that the name was not popular with customers and the 30 shops that were outside London began trading under the 'Budgens' fascia.[2] The 'B2' branded shops in London were then changed to 'Budgens Express' before finally reverting to the 'Budgens' brand.

In June 2002, the company was purchased by the Irish Musgrave Group. Two years later, they started selling off Budgens shops; the largest shops were disposed of on the open market, with shops in places including Tadley and Mildenhall going to larger shop chains. Other shops were divested to independent retailers, including Jempsons & 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.

In 2007, the divestment of the original Budgens shops to independent retailers was complete,[3] although by March 2009, a few underperforming Budgens stores had been returned to Musgrave. A further eight stores were acquired in 2009 by a Budgens franchise partner from the Co-op, which had acquired them on taking over the Somerfield group, but was instructed to dispose of them by the Office of Fair Trading). These stores closed just eightmonths later.[4]

In May 2015, Musgrave Group confirmed that it had reached an agreement to sell Budgens and Londis for £40 million to the wholesaler Booker Group, subject to regulatory approval.[5]

In January 2017 Tesco launched a takeover bid for Booker, including the Budgens fascia.[6] This acquisition was completed in March 2018.

Shops
Budgens in Southam

Budgens stores range in size from around 140m² to around 1,200m², and therefore fall into the convenience shop size range or the bottom end of the supermarket size range. According to retail analysts TNS Worldpanel, Budgens ranked 13th in the grocery sector in the United Kingdom in December 2004, with a market share of 0.4%.

The largest Budgens shop was in the town of Holt, Norfolk, with just over 13,000 square feet/1,207m until it was destroyed by fire on 20 June 2020.[7]

The first two Scottish shops opened in July 2016, these were bought from the Coop, and had previously been branded as Somerfield and Safeway. They are located in Paisley and Prestwick. The Paisley shop closed later that year. In 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012, Budgens was voted Fresh Foods Convenience Retailer of the Year in the company owned sector at the Retail Industry Awards.[8][9]

Corporate identity
Budgen corporate identity (1969 to 1989)

Currently, there is no official record of previous corporate identities used by this company. 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 a tulip (symbolising freshness) depicted in orange and white on a brown rounded square background. The orange 'Budgen' corporate identity was used from c. 1968 to 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 has again been replaced with a lighter two-tone green background, with the 'Budgens' device now depicted in a lower case font.

References
  1. ‘Supermarkets’, Competition Commission report presented to Parliament in October 2000, chapter 5, page 72
  2. Week, Marketing (18 June 1998). "Budgens rebrands b2 stores". Marketing Week. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. "Musgrave Group". Musgrave.ie. 26 May 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  4. "Musgrave to buy somerfield stores to increase budgens chain". Budgens. Archived from the original on 13 December 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
  5. "Booker Group to buy Budgens and Londis". BBC News. 21 May 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2015.
  6. "Why is Tesco buying Budgens' owner – and will it affect shoppers?". The Guardian. 27 January 2017. Retrieved 1 February 2019.
  7. "Britain´s biggest Budgens opens after £1 million investment - Our latest news". Budgens.co.uk. 15 November 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  8. "Budgens Award Winners". Budgens. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2009.
  9. "2012 Winners". Retail Industry Awards. Metropolis Business Media. Archived from the original on 10 June 2013. Retrieved 19 January 2014.

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/

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