Costcutter is a

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 ...

symbol group operating as two separate entities with different ownerships in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It previously had stores in Poland. The shops are independently owned and join the groups, paying a fee for marketing and branding support and purchasing their stock from the brand owners. By 2006, there were some 1,400 shops under the Costcutter brand, with the majority of shops being in the United Kingdom, and 120 shops in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and 52 in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

United Kingdom

Costcutter was founded in 1986, by Colin Graves."Nisa's chairman to step down"
''Yorkshire Post'', 2 November 2006 A proposed merger with Nisa-Today's collapsed in November 2006, after concerns about a

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

. which were reported to the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

by members of Nisa-Today's, who opposed the merger. Costcutter revived the

Kwik Save Kwik Save is a British convenience store chain. Prior to 2007, it was also a discount supermarket chain that had shops across the United Kingdom. It went into administration in July 2007, but was brought back in April 2012. Its shops were s ...

brand in 2012, from a separate chain which had ceased trading. In 2018, The Co-op Group made an offer of £15 million in an attempt to take ownership of Costcutter. The bid was rejected, but it was believed the Costcutter was open to further talks. The Co-op subsequently became the sole supplier to the Costcutter group. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Costcutter built 20 pop-up shops in NHS hospitals. In December 2020, Costcutter's UK business was acquired by Bestway Wholesale. The Co-op supply agreement will continue until 2026.

Republic of Ireland

In 2000, the brand entered the Irish market as a separate business under the ownership of Barry Group. In 2024, Costcutter Ireland ditched its previous logo with a new one, still different from the one in the UK in being all red rather than green and red.

References

Other sources

Vantage chiefs in MBO rowBarry's buys 24 shop franchises

External links

Costcutter website (UK)Costcutter website Ireland
{{Convenience stores in Europe Supermarkets of the United Kingdom Franchises Convenience stores of the United Kingdom Purchasing consortia Companies based in York Retail companies established in 1986 1986 establishments in the United Kingdom Supermarkets of Ireland Retail companies of the United Kingdom