K Market buys back 50 per cent stake

Press, 15 July 1987, Page 46

K Market buys back 50 per cent stake

PA Hamilton Hamilton fruit and vegetable retailer, K Market, Ltd, has bought back the 50 per cent shareholding it sold to Woolrest Corporation last year. Directors, Mr Paul Fear and Mr Brian Dale, declined to say what they paid for Woolrest’s shareholding, but described the deal as "mutually acceptable.”

The move follows Woolrest’s similar buy-back of control of their company from the Wellington merchant bankers Jarden Corporation. K Market is one of the country’s largest priv-ately-owned fruit and vegetable retailers. Mr Fear said the Jar-den-Woolrest restructuring was the catalyst for

the K Market buy-back. Woolrest’s involvement over the past year had greatly assisted K Market, particularly In the areas of planning and training which had been good for profitability and growth, he said. A recent survey conducted by the Waikato University of K Market customers highlighted the community’s preference for locally-owned, independent retailers, he said. K Market has finalised plans to open a retail and wholesale outlet in Tauranga in late September. The success of the company’s three stores in Hamilton enabled further expansion, Mr Fear Said. Sites for stores in Auckland were being investigated.