Supermarket Tesco announced a deal to merge with Booker, the UK's largest wholesale food retailer.
Tesco is valuing Booker at €4.3bn (£3.7bn), the addition of Booker, which owns the Londis, Budgens, Premier and Family Shopper brands, will add around £3bn to Tesco’s £15.5bn market capitalisation.
Northamptonshire-based Booker is the UK's biggest wholesale food supplier and sells branded and white label goods to over 500,000 customers across the UK, such as convenience stores Budgens and Londis, catering companies, pubs, and restaurants like Byron Burger, Wagamama, Carluccios, and Prezzo.
Booker had sales of £5 billion in 2016 and made a pre-tax profit of £150 million.
Tesco CEO Dave Lewis said: "The merger creates the opportunity for new innovations in the way we serve Britain food."
Lewis made clear on the call that the key motivation for the deal is to take Tesco into what he called the "out of home" food market — people going out to eat at restaurants or catered events.
The Booker takeover marks a return to Tesco's expansionist ways after years of losing market share in the UK.
