Richard Burrows was coy last week about the prospects of a sale of BWG Foods, Pernod Ricard's distribution operation in Ireland. No decision on the sale process has yet been taken, he said.

Talk in the trade has it, however, that Pernod Ricard would like to move on a sale of BWG sooner rather than later. There is also speculation that BWG chief executive Leo Crawford is keen on the prospect of a management buyout (MBO).

Certainly there would be no shortage of venture capital funding to fund a MBO, with British venture capital houses more than willing to step into the breach if the Irish venture capitalists are slow to stump up the cash. The C&C and Clondalkin MBOs showed the willingness of the British financiers to put up lots of cash for sound prospects.

Apart from an MBO, it is difficult to see any other Irish buyer of BWG. Competition regulations would rule out the likes of Musgrave, and the big retail chains would not be interested in a distribution/ retail franchise business like BWG. A UK bidder is an obvious possibility, as is a split and sale of the BWG wholesale distribution and Spar franchise parts.