BWG Foods Unlimited Company[1] is a wholesaler and retail grocery franchise operator in Ireland, owned by SPAR South Africa.[2]
BWG is the second largest wholesaler in Ireland in terms of sales, after Musgrave Group, with sales of over €1.7 billion annually.[3][4] It used to be owned by a consortium run by Leo Crawford, John O'Donnell and John Clohessy. In 2015, SPAR's franchise in South Africa acquired an 80% stake in BWG for €55 million, in 2021 they gained full ownership of BWG.[5] The company head office is based in Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland.[6]
History
EDL, a wholesale buying group applied to SPAR to operate the symbol in the Republic of Ireland. SPAR rejected this offer citing inadequate warehousing facilities and that the group had too many members in order to operate the symbol efficiently.
In 1963 a group of wholesalers broke from EDL and formed a consortium, P. Barrett and Sons Ltd, D. Tyndall and Sons Ltd of Dublin and McNulty and O'Reilly Ltd of Bray merged to form Amalgamated Wholesalers Ltd (AWL), Maurice P. Daly Ltd and The Jamaica Banana of Cork merged to form Munster United Merchants Ltd (MUM), and Messrs Looney and Co. Ltd of Limerick, these firms organised the Spar franchise based on the provinces of Leinster, Munster & Connaught. In 1966, a fourth wholesaler, Western Wholesale, joined the consortium securing a National spread for the Spar business.
in 1973, the Brooks-Watson Group (BWG) was formed through the later merger of the 4 SPAR wholesalers in the Republic of Ireland. In 1984 BWG was sold to Irish Distillers.[7]
In 2000, BWG purchased the Mace franchise area in Munster owned by Vantage Wholesale, merging it with its existing franchise area in Leinster.[8]
As of 2002, BWG was owned by Pernod Ricard
Notable Operations
Spar
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.[27][28] 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
BWG holds the master franchise for the Mace
External links
References
- BWG Foods Unlimited Company OpenCorporates, 1963-05-01, retrieved 2025-03-12^
- Our History BWG, retrieved 26 June 2025^
- http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/06/15/story33633.asp^