Booker plc

Booker Group plc

Type	Public company
Traded as	:
Industry	Retail catering
Founded	1835
Headquarters	Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
Key people	Richard Rose, Chairman Charles Wilson, CEO
Products	Cash and carry outlets
Revenue	£4,991.5 million (2016)
Operating income	£155.1 million (2016)
Net income	£127.8 million (2016)
Number of employees	13,000 (2017)
Website	www.bookergroup.com

Booker Group plc is the United Kingdom's largest food wholesale operator, offering branded and private-label goods to over 400,000 customers, including independent convenience stores, grocers, pubs, and restaurants. The firm is listed on the and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The company also founded, and was previously a sponsor of, the Booker Prize (originally the Booker–McConnell Prize) for literary fiction, which was established in 1968.

In January 2017, it was announced that the supermarket retailer Tesco had agreed to purchase the company for £3.7 billion.

The company was founded by George and Richard Booker in 1835, when they bought their first ship and established the Booker Line, which focused on shipping goods. It later diversified into the distribution of goods, and gradually disposed of its fleet of ships. With a new focus on wholesale food distribution, the company had over 100 warehouses across the United Kingdom by 1978, and was trading as Booker, McConnell Ltd.

Among other interests, it operated the sugar industry in Guyana (British Guiana before independence in 1966), running five Booker Line ships, until it was nationalised around 1970. After six months, Booker was called back to market the sugar. Booker had a long history of exploitation of sugar workers through the indentured labour system during the 19th and 20th centuries. At its peak, it controlled 75% of the sugar industry in British Guiana and was so powerful that a common joke was to refer to the country as "Booker's Guiana". In 1952, Jock Campbell took over the chairmanship of the company and his Fabian social politics transformed it dramatically into a benevolent force providing major benefits for sugar workers. Jock Campbell was also instrumental in the setting up of Booker's Author Division, which sponsored the Booker Prize.

In 1986, the company set up a short-lived co-venture between the directors of Siriol Animation to create Kalisto. Kalisto also developed a show called Space Baby (which eventually became Fantastic Max), along with another series called Satellite City (which was co-produced with Fairwater Films) and the animated film The Little Engine That Could. Kalisto barely lasted a year before Booker bought the rights back.