Nisa ponders move to Republic

ONE MORE THING:UK FOOD and drink wholesaler Nisa-Today's is considering expanding its activities into the Republic in a move that would add a little spice to independent retailing here.

The Scunthorpe-based group has confirmed to The Irish Timesthat it is "presently evaluating the business and logistics challenges of extending Nisa's model into the south of Ireland".

It is a sizeable player in the UK, where its 670 Nisa retail members operate more than 5,000 stores, and it claims to be "Europe's biggest independent buying group".

It has 80 member stores in Northern Ireland and sells 180,000 cases of goods a week into the market. Nisa reckons it can expand its activities south of the Border without too much difficulty.

"This [ the Republic] is a market which shares many similar characteristics with the UK," chief executive Neil Turton told us. "We are doing this very much as part of our review process of Nisa's distribution needs and designing our post-2011 supply chain network."

Nisa recently appointed Richard Smyth as business development manager for the whole of Ireland. It has also been supplying an unnamed retailer in the Republic for a number of months as a pilot project. It is understood that Nisa has been supplying 6,000 cases of goods a week to this mysterious retailer, who is rumoured to be based in Tipperary or Galway.

"No firm strategy decisions have yet been made, but we are keen to explore every possible opportunity for Nisa to grow," Turton said in a statement.

We wish Nisa well. Food wholesaling here is dominated by Irish-owned groups Musgrave and BWG. Some extra competition would be no bad thing but trying to muscle in on their turf could prove a frustrating experience.