bwg see blue wings . for the airport with the iata code bwg in bowling green kentucky see bowling green warren county regional airport . bwg foods ltd is an irish wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator . bwg is the second largest wholesaler in ireland in terms of sales after musgrave group with sales of over 1.7 billion annually . 1 2 it is owned by a constortium run by leo crawford john o donnell and john clohessy . 3 the company head office is based in walkinstown dublin ireland . contents 1 history 2 notable operations 2.1 spar 2.2 mace 2.3 other operations 2.4 bwg foodservice 2.5 value centre 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit 2000 bwg purchased the mace franchise area in munster owned by vantage wholesale merging it with its existing franchise area in leinster . 4 2002 bwg was owned by pernod ricard who had acquired the business as part of irish distillers but offered it for sale as it was not core to their business . 5 bwg was sold via a management buyout financed by electra partners europe for 220m euro . 6 the current owners bought out electra in 2006 through a vehicle called triode with a value of 390m euro placed on the firm . 7 8 2003 bwg bought tolan s foodservice based in galway in july 2003 9 10 this business was renamed bwg foodservice . bwg sold its bellevue cash & carry s in edinburgh and stirling scotland in october just 5 years after buying it . 11 the northern ireland subsidiary j & j haslett which held the franchise for mace was sold in december 2003 via a management buy out . 12 13 musgrave group has since bought j & j haslett 2004 the bargain booze off licence chain in the united kingdom was sold in 2004 . 14 2008 bwg bought mangan bros ltd a wholesaler based in ennis county clare . with this purchase bwg took control of mace franchise throughout ireland . the business consisted of 8 cash and carries in the west of ireland and a distribution centre in collooney in county sligo supplying mace stores . 15 16 17 bwg promptly closed the collooney centre and integrated it into their ballyshannon facility . 18 seven cash & carry closures follow due to location overlaps and duplication and all sites are now branded value centre . 2010 in september 2010 they announced the closure of their warehouse in ballyshannon county donegal 19 with the business transferring into the centre at walkinstown dublin . 2012 in may 2012 bwg acquired morris bros of convoy donegal . morris bros operate a distribution centre that supply gala stores and independent retailers in the north west of ireland . 20 in june 2012 a new ambient distribution centre opened in kilcarberry dublin with the aim of consolidating distribution of ambient goods to all spar and mace stores under one roof including its bonded warehouse . the new 240 000 sq ft centre resulted in the closure of the existing centres in limerick and walkinstown and was expected to handle 26 million cases per year . 21 22 bwg announced a partnership with donnellys fruit & veg in august 2012 . this saw a new separate distribution centre for chilled foods set up in kilshane cross dublin . the centre distributed fruit & veg meats and other chilled products to all bwg s franchise stores nationwide . it affected bwg s central billing business as a result . notable operations edit spar edit it is the master franchise operator for the spar spar express and eurospar brands in ireland with approximately 450 spar stores . spar ireland reported 1.67 billion in retail sales in 2007 . 23 24 in ireland spar operates in store franchises for tim hortons coffee insomnia coffee company kitsu noodles and treehouse smoothies among others . in the south west of england bwg also own appleby westward foods . this is a small regional spar wholesaler based in saltash cornwall . mace edit bwg holds the master franchise for the mace chain of 230 stores in ireland . maxol and mace also have an exclusive deal that sees most maxol owned forecourt shops branded mace . other operations edit newhill bwg s retail subsidiary owns over 100 stores which are leased rented to operators for an agreed percentage of turnover . 25 the stores trade as spar and mace . bwg foodservice edit bwg foodservice is a division which offers a full frozen chill ambient range aimed at the foodservice channel . the business was born from the purchase of tolan foodservice and the main depot is still at the same site in galway . a new site was opened at north road dublin in 2007 and later a third in cork . these sites are also value centres . value centre edit bwg owns ireland s largest cash & carry chain value centre which has 22 branches nationwide . value centre offer xl to its value centre customers as a franchise option . it is a more cost effective way for retailers who are not suited to a full brand offering like spar to get the benefits of franchise membership . they still receive the benefit of central billing without the expense or requirements of larger franchises . competitors include gala express operated by stonehouse wholesale and day today operated by musgrave . see also edit list of irish companies references edit http archives.tcm.ie businesspost 2008 06 15 story33633.asp http www.independent.ie business irish spars parent bwg sees profits up 10pc 200488.html http www.irishtimes.com newspaper finance 2008 1120 122713521 9896.html http www.independent.ie business bwg foods dual purchase 372825.html http www.rte.ie news 2001 0312 pernodricard business.html http www.independent.ie business irish bwg goes in buyout for 220m to electra partners 300144.html http www.independent.ie business irish bwg chiefs in 390m spar buyout 73833.html http www.rte.ie news 2002 0718 bwg business.html http www.independent.ie business irish bwg buys galways tolan foodservice 25939792.html http www.breakingnews.ie business bwg foods buys tolan foodservice 106847.html http www.independent.ie business irish bwg sells scottish bellevue 25928098.html http business.timesonline.co.uk tol business article1101796.ece http goliath.ecnext.com coms2 gi 0199 1216185 bwg sells haslett to mbo.html http www.rte.ie news 2006 0116 bwg business.html http www.irishtimes.com newspaper finance 2008 1128 122782537 9660.html http www.emigrant.ie index.php option com content & task view & id 57469 http www.independent.ie business irish mangan bros rack up pretax profits of 55m 1556210.html http www.independent.ie business irish bwg confirms 836440m cashandcarry buy 1328081.html http www.fxcentre.com news.asp 2654811 http www.irishtimes.com newspaper finance 2012 0518 122431628 0748.html http www.businessandleadership.com business item 36381 bwg foods three year 50m http checkout.newsweaver.co.uk 8l15dee9t4c1w0owneihnc email true & a 2 & p 33474365 & t 17673024 http archives.tcm.ie businesspost 2008 06 15 story33633.asp http www.rte.ie news 2008 0609 spar business.html http www.independent.ie business irish pretax profits at 128 spar shops increase to 6m 278739.html external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title bwg foods & oldid 732495752 categories retail companies of irelandwholesalers of the republic of irelandcompanies based in dublin city hidden categories use dmy dates from july 2015use irish english from july 2015all wikipedia articles written in irish english navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 1 august 2016 at 10 33 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view