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Willie, the number of One Stop franchises is minuscule, Booker are bringing over 5000 stores to the party plus it’s even bigger catering customer base. They already offer very compelling rates with World Pay on merchant charges. What we are talking about is a totally different proposition. The Tesco bank could easily undercut the high street banks, or arrange an affinity scheme with one bank like other franchisors. Mcdonalds and KFC franchisees pay nothing like the charges that we are paying for banking or merchant services, the same thing for energy, insurance, telephones etc etc

I am realistic and actually quite agnostic as to what happens, I think there are many negatives that will come out of this merger and some retailers are going to be very disappointed. Tesco will ultimately want to grow its market share, profitability and increase shareholder value, the Booker umbrella retailers are now tiny tiny cogs in a much larger machine and could be treated accordingly.

I think that many things on the retailers wish lists will come about because it makes good sense for both parties. I also expect one stop to experience some radical change on the back of this merger. I don’t know what the alternative is to multiple backed consolidation anymore? No other wholesaler is offering an alternative argument and Nisa are about to follow the same path, a year from now the landscape will be totally different. But I would put a huge wager on Booker retailer's operating costs being lower, not sure about the wholesale prices however!