Booths

For the Feast of Booths, see Sukkot. For other meanings, see Booth (disambiguation).

EH Booth & Co Ltd

"to sell the best quality goods in shops staffed by first class assistants"
Type	Private limited company
Industry	Supermarket
Founded	1847 1896 (incorporated)
Founder(s)	Edwin Henry Booth
Headquarters	Ribbleton, Preston, England, UK
Number of locations	28 retail stores in Northern England
Key people	Edwin J. Booth (Chairman) John Vandermeer (Finance Director) Andrew Rafferty (IT Director) Jacqueline Lunardi (HR Director)
Products	Food, beverage & tobacco retailing
Revenue	£270.32m (2011)
Operating income	£9.41m (2011)
Profit	£5.74m (2011)
Owner(s)	Booth family members & staff
Employees	3,093
Subsidiaries	Booths (Lytham) Ltd Booths (St Annes) Ltd Booths (Penrith) Ltd
Website	www.booths.co.uk

Booths is a chain of supermarkets in Northern England. Most of its branches are located in Lancashire, but there are also branches in Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Booths is targeted at the middle class market and competes on quality as opposed to just value. It has been developed on the motto "to sell the best quality goods in shops staffed by first class assistants".

History

E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd was founded in June 1847 when 19-year-old tea dealer Edwin Henry Booth opened a shop called The China House in Blackpool. In 1863, he added the sale of wines and spirits, and branches were opened in Lytham in 1879 and Blackburn in 1884. The business was incorporated as a private limited company in 1896.

Edwin's son John opened cafes in the stores in 1902 and invited all staff to become shareholders in 1920. It has remained owned by the Booth family and staff ever since, comprising over 250 shareholders in 2011 and with no individual having more than 12% of the total shares. The current chairman, Edwin J. Booth, is the fifth generation.

In a feature article in The Guardian in 2008, David Webster, the former chairman and co-founder of Britain's Safeway chain (which had sold out to Morrisons in 2004), said that he had tried to buy out Booths several times over the years, as did several of his rivals, adding "one thought Booths would have disappeared ages ago but it jolly well hasn't. It is obviously doing an outstanding job for its customers".

From humble beginnings as a tea shop in Blackpool, Booths grew into the first chain of supermarkets in the area, and even though it has now been eclipsed by bigger supermarkets such as Tesco and Sainsbury's, it boasted 29 stores across the region in 2011.

Booths today

Booths Central Office, Ribbleton, Preston

In 2006, Booths achieved second place in the list of the World's Greatest Food Retailers. The panel of top designers, architects, analysts, journalists, suppliers and retailers was brought together by national trade publication, The Grocer, and asked to rank their favourite food retailers from anywhere in the world. They were impressed by the quality of the company’s offer, its focus on local sourcing and head for innovation. Simon Bell, retail director of foodservice firm Leathams, voted Booths’ Chorley store first above Selfridges in London. He applauds its excellent customer service, knowledge of products and friendly staff.

In June 2005, the current Chairman, Edwin J Booth, was awarded the BITC (Business in the Community) Prince of Wales Ambassador Award for North West England. This is given to individuals whose leadership and commitment to responsible business practice and the actions they have taken personally have created a positive impact both inside their company and on the wider society.

A new head office was custom built and opened in early 2006. It is in Ribbleton, Preston and includes a wealth of environmentally friendly features, such as using rainwater to flush the toilets.

In 2008, Booths and Waitrose, which share similar policies on food quality and customer service, formed a buying alliance allowing the companies to benefit from larger economies of scale.

Booths and Waitrose, along with small independent shops, are now the exclusive stockists of the Duchy Originals range of products, after Waitrose agreed an exclusive agreement in September 2009. The products were rebranded as Duchy Originals from Waitrose at the beginning of August 2010.

Current locations

The company's stores are spread over the following locations:

Cheshire

• Knutsford

Cumbria

Booths in Ulverston

• Kendal , home of the new 'Artisan' restaurant/shop. Artisan champions passionate local people who are truly committed to producing quality crafted and specialist foods.
• Keswick
• Kirkby Lonsdale
• Ulverston
• Windermere
• Penrith

Lancashire

• Ansdell
• Barrowford, store due to open 2013
• Carnforth
• Chorley
• Clitheroe
• Fulwood, Preston: The Fulwood branch is sited opposite the Royal Preston Hospital
• Garstang
• Hesketh Bank
  

  

  Booths Store Under construction in Hesketh Bank April 2010
• Lane Ends, Preston
• Longridge
• Longton, near Preston: The current Longton store relocated a few hundred yards down the road from its original site at the junction of Liverpool Road and Franklands, and now occupies the site of the former Mansion House public house.
• Lytham, Haven Road: Large Supermarket on edge of town. Opened 14 Sept. 2007 Also includes another 'Artisan' restaurant. In April 2009 Haven Road opened the "Worlds First" and Booths first Self Service Juice Bar.
  

  

  Booths Supermarket, Haven Road Lytham
  .
• Marton, Blackpool
• Normoss, Blackpool
• Penwortham, near Preston: There were, until recently, two Booths stores in Penwortham, one on Liverpool Road, and a larger store on Millbrook Way. The Liverpool Road store has since closed and was occupied by a branch of rival chain Somerfield which shut in 2008.
• Poulton-le-Fylde
• Scotforth, Lancaster Including Butchers, Deli and Hot Counter, with Cheese Specialist in store. New store due to open summer 2013.
• Torrisholme, Morecambe

North Yorkshire

• Ripon, Booths opened successfully on 25 June 2009 and is situated just two minutes walk from the heart of the city centre and will also include the supermarket's second self service juice bar as well as "Cafe 1847"
• Settle

West Yorkshire

• Ilkley

Greater Manchester

• Media City, Salford

The future

Although the company has recently closed its Leyland, Penwortham (Liverpool Road), South Shore, Lytham (Market Square) stores, and its oldest store in St. Annes, it is also opening new stores. In January 2009 the chain announced it was to take a unit in the proposed redeveloped Square shopping centre in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester. Locations for future stores are also believed to include Hesketh Bank and Burscough. Peel Media has submitted a planning application on behalf of Booths for a 23,000 sq ft (2,100 m²) store in Salford Quays. It is expected to be complete by 2011.

A new store in Barrowford is due to open in 2013.

Artisan restaurant and cafe bar

The Artisan speciality food shop and restaurant is a recent development by Booths. The first one was located at the Kendal store, its range is mainly local produce from small producers. The second opened in 2007 at the Haven Road store in Lytham.

Rebranding

Booths has largely concluded re-branding the company. This has involved replacing the former 'Booths the grocer' image, based on green and orange; with a newer look, based upon wine, lavender, olive and saffron colours.

This has included a new store logo, new uniforms, redesigned carrier bags, and new look packaging on products to incorporate the new colours.

See also

• List of supermarket chains in the United Kingdom

External links

• Booths Homepage
• Everywine.co.uk : Internet wine service operated by Booths