FreshXpress was a discount supermarket

Supermarket

A supermarket, a form of grocery store, is a self-service store offering a wide variety of food and household merchandise, organized into departments...

 chain in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It was originally formed in 2007, from the rump of the defunct Kwik Save

Kwik Save

Kwik Save was a discount supermarket chain in the United Kingdom until 2007. Its stores were small to medium sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes...

 chain, by Irish retail entrepreneur Brendan Murtagh

Brendan Murtagh

Brendan Murtagh is an Irish sportsperson. He plays hurling with his local club Clonkill and has been a member of the Westmeath senior inter-county team since 2001.-References:-Teams:...

. It existed in its original form between July 2007 and March 2008, culminating in it going into administration, and was then resurrected in a smaller form, however during 2009 the resurrected company also went into administration, and has since ceased to exist.

History

From the remains of Kwik Save

In February 2007 Brendan Murtagh, a major shareholder in Cavan-based Kingspan building materials group backed 70% of a £50 million rescue plan for Kwik Save

Kwik Save

Kwik Save was a discount supermarket chain in the United Kingdom until 2007. Its stores were small to medium sized high street supermarkets, mainly located in areas with below average incomes...

, with the Kwik Save managing director, Paul Niklas covering the remaining 30%. Murtagh's son Alan had already been a director of the business before he got involved.

A new beginning

FreshXpress Retail Limited first had 56 stores, all of which were formerly Kwik Save stores before the chain went bankrupt. On 6 July 2007, 56 stores stayed open, forming FreshXpress in an £18m deal, saving around 600 jobs. The FreshXpress stores officially opened on 21 July 2007. Prodo and The Think Tank assisted with the creation of the new brand. In the middle of September 2007, due to poor trading results this portfolio of stores was reduced from 56 to just 23 better performing stores, the closed stores were sold in chunks to Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

, Sainsbury's, and The Co-op.

Many of the stores were leased from the Somerfield

Somerfield

Somerfield was a chain of small to medium sized supermarkets operating in the United Kingdom. The company was taken over by the Co-operative Group on 2 March 2009 in a £1.57 billion deal, creating the UK's fifth largest food retailer. The name is currently being phased out and replaced by the...

group and are now being leased to other retailers

Into administration

Between September 2007 and March 2008 more under performing FreshXpress stores were closed down, leaving just nine stores, and Mr Niklas cut his ties with the company. In March 2008 FreshXpress went into administration. On 21 March David Whitehouse of Menzies Corporate Restructuring was appointed joint administrator.

2008

Another vehicle called FX Holdings (formerly Ivybrim), received the go ahead at Manchester Crown Court to acquire the remaining operating outlets. Andrew King, a former executive at Costcutter, one of the company's suppliers was to head up a nine store chain with 130 employees.

Into administration again

The parent company of the second incarnation of FreshXpress, FX Holdings was placed into administration and subject to a request for a winding up order in April 2009. All the remaining stores were closed.