Musgrave is searching for a big retail partner to strike a click-and-collect partnership.
The Budgens and Londis operator aims to leverage its high street locations to provide a convenient pick-up point for customers collecting orders from other retailers.
The symbol group aims to emulate rival Spar, which has partnered with etailers such as Asos and Shop Direct-run Very to offer collection points as part of the Collect+ service.
Musgrave group chief executive Chris Martin said: “We are definitely looking at employing click and collect and working with a larger partner.” Musgrave is understood to have already approached at least one big multiple retailer.
This week Musgrave reported a 1% slip in annual pre-tax profit to €71m for the last year. Total sales rose 1.6% to €4.5 billion in the year to December 31 2011.
In the UK, Budgens and Londis generated retail sales of €2bn across 2,451 stores. Martin is targeting a further 150 combined store openings this year and will bolster their fresh offers with lessons learned from the Irish Superquinn business, acquired for €229m last July.
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