Londis is a chain of

convenience shop A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lottery t ...

franchises operating in Ireland. The stores form a

symbol group A symbol group is a form of Franchising, franchise of convenience shops, found primarily in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They do not own or operate shops, but act as suppliers to independent shops which then trade under a common banner. Unli ...

and are all owned on a franchise basis. The parent company for Londis Ireland is wholesaler retail grocery franchise operator

BWG Foods BWG Foods Unlimited Company is an Irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator. BWG is the second largest wholesaler in Ireland in terms of sales, after Musgrave Group, with sales of over €1.7 billion annually. It used to be owned ...

UC. In December 2012, the company has an estimated net worth of £319 million.

Operations

In Ireland, the Londis format is controlled by grocer-owned wholesaler ADM Londis plc. Allied Dublin Merchants was a co-operative of grocers in Ireland founded in 1954. Its subsidiary, ADM Londis Ltd, began in 1970 when it acquired the Londis master franchise for Ireland. In 1995, it bought the rights to the brand for the island of Ireland outright. Its only remaining link with Londis UK is the name. A 1975 name change to Allied Distributive Merchants preceded the 2005 formation of ADM Londis plc. ADM Londis describes itself as a retailers' co-operative and its members own 360 stores. Changing from a legal

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democr ...

to an unlisted

public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth jurisdictions, and Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is a limited liability co ...

in 2004, ADM Londis also claims to be the only Irish

where retailers can own the company through share holdings and realise the value in their shares at market price. From 1998 to 2004, a number of

petrol station A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...

s in Ireland had Londis–branded forecourt stores, as part of an agreement with

Tedcastles Oil Products Top Oil (formally Tedcastles Oil Products Unlimited Company) is an Irish-based petrol company founded in 1960 which trades under the brand name "Top". Before a rebranding in 1998, the company variously traded as "Tedcastles Oil Products", "Tedcas ...

(TOP), a major Irish fuel retailer. These stores, and several main street stores owned by TOP Petrol Stations, were called Londis Topshop. In 2004 however, ADM Londis and TOP dissolved their agreement. ADM then acquired the jointly owned Londis Topshop stores and rebranded them as Londis, using the opportunity to rebrand the stores with the new Londis logo. ADM Londis introduced the Londis Plus brand for larger,

supermarket A supermarket is a self-service Retail#Types of outlets, shop offering a wide variety of food, Drink, beverages and Household goods, household products, organized into sections. Strictly speaking, a supermarket is larger and has a wider selecti ...

–format stores. ADM Londis was acquired by BWG (owner of Spar Franchise in Ireland) in 2015 for €23m.

References

External links

Londis Ireland website
{{Convenience stores Convenience stores Demutualized organizations Former cooperatives Irish companies established in 1970 Retail companies established in 1970 Retailers' cooperatives Cooperatives in Ireland