Londis is a chain of

convenience shop A convenience store, convenience shop, corner store or corner shop is a small retail business that stocks a range of everyday items such as coffee, groceries, snack foods, confectionery, soft drinks, ice creams, tobacco products, lottery ticke ...

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

s operating in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The stores form a

symbol group A symbol group is a form of 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. Unlike other form ...

and are all owned on a

basis. The parent company for Londis Ireland is wholesaler retail grocery franchise operator BWG Foods UC. In December 2012, the company has an estimated net worth of £319 million.

Operations

, 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 Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

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 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 jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fre ...

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 1998–2004, 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 in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gaso ...

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

Tedcastles Oil Products Tedcastles Oil Products, Ltd. (TOP) is an Irish petrol company founded in 1960 which trades under the brand name "TOP". Before a rebranding in 1998, the company traded as "Tedcastle's Oil". Top Oil is a medium-sized Irish distributor of petroleu ...

(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–format stores.

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