Internet grocery offers from the likes of Amazon is where the threat to independents lie now and in the future, Charles Wilson told delegates at the Scottish Grocer’s Federation’s (SGF) Business Summit on 27 April.

He issued the warning during a panel discussion in which it was put to the Booker chief executive that the proposed £3.7bn Tesco and Booker merger deal would strengthen the hand of a large supermarket group that had in reality been trying to drive independent retailers out of the market.

Wilson said the suggestion missed the point and that anyone who could analyse the numbers could see that the real threat now and in the future would come from Amazon and its ilk.

The potential for growth in a highly competitive market was the key driver for the Tesco-Booker deal, Wilson told almost 200 delegates at the Inchyra Grange Hotel, in Falkirk.

The synergies and strategic fit that both parties brought to the table would:

  • · Drive growth
  • · Ensure efficiencies across the supply chain
  • · Deliver a better service to retailers
  • · Improve the offer to consumers.

Wilson said the key aim was to optimise efficiencies and ensure there was no waste across the supply chain.