Costcutter

Costcutter is a chain of convenience shops, supermarkets and off-licences that operates in Ireland, Great Britain and Poland. The chain operates primarily as a symbol group and is owned by Barry Group in the Republic of Ireland and by Bestway Wholesale in the United Kingdom.

In the UK, the group owns the Costcutter, Kwik Save, Supershop, and Simply Fresh brands.

History
Costcutter was founded in 1986, by Colin Graves.

In 2000, the brand entered the Irish market as a separate business under the ownership of Barry Group.

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 the Republic of Ireland and 52 in Poland.

A proposed merger with Nisa-Today's collapsed in November 2006, after concerns about a cartel. which were reported to the Office of Fair Trading by members of Nisa-Today's, who opposed the merger.

Costcutter revived the Kwik Save 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 the wholesaler Bestway. The Co-op supply agreement continues. Its Irish business remains in the ownership of Barry Group.

Other sources

 * Vantage chiefs in MBO row
 * Barry's buys 24 shop franchises
 * Costcutter, Vantage in strategic link-up