MRH has agreed a wholesale supply agreement with Booker Retail Partners, and will expand its Budgens retail offer. It will also end its trial with the Co-op in January.

The new wholesale supply agreement follows the recent collapse of Palmer and Harvey, with which MRH had a five-year £90m contract.

Under the terms of the new deal, Booker will supply 370 MRH forecourt stores nationwide, including MRH’s own-brand Hursts stores, with chilled and ambient product lines. As of last week, all of these sites were already receiving regular deliveries from Booker.

The agreement builds on the relationship MRH has established with Booker Retail Partners through its symbol group Budgens, which is present at five MRH forecourts that were acquired through Peregrine Retail earlier this year. Following successful trials at these stores, MRH has agreed that Budgens will become one of its retail partners across its estate.

An additional six sites will transition to Budgens, and are expected to be open by Easter next year. The six new Budgens will go into Thetford East, Kingston, Eastcote, Downfields, Faringdon and Streatham. The last five of these sites are currently part of the Co-op pilot. 

In addition, as part of MRH’s strategy to broaden its retail offer to meet the different needs of its customers, the Hursts Grab and Go brand will be rolled out to an additional five sites, which will also open by Easter. These stores will also be supplied by Booker Retail Partners and will benefit from Booker’s range of food to go and branded ready meals.

Karen Dickens, chief executive of MRH, said: "We are delighted to have agreed this partnership with Booker, who have been incredibly supportive over the past three weeks. The strength of their brand and quality of service means we can offer our customers even more choice, and further enhances our fresh and food-to-eat-later credentials. Broadening our convenience offer is an important part of our strategy in creating ever more reasons for customers to visit and shop with us.”

Steve Fox, managing director of Booker Group - Retail, said: "It is our privilege to serve MRH as they operate great stores, with fantastic standards. I’m confident that this partnership will build on this success and we are looking forward to helping them drive footfall, sales and profits.”

MRH operates 491 petrol forecourts across the UK.

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