Dobbies Garden Centres in Aberdeen, Inverness and 33 other UK locations are reportedly about to change hands after current owner Tesco put the business up for sale and set a deadline of today for offers.
Speculation has already identified Wyevale Garden Centres as a likely suitor for Midlothian-based Dobbies, which employs more than 2,700 people and has been owned outright by Tesco since 2008.
Wyevale, with headquarters in Middlesex, operates 153 garden centres in England and Wales.
It is owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners, founded and led by private-equity entrepreneur Guy Hands, whose investment portfolio also includes Odeon and UCI Cinemas and retirement home operator Four Seasons Health Care.
Wyevale is believed to have already tabled a £173million takeover bid for Dobbies in a move aimed at creating a garden centres empire about six times the size of its next biggest rival.
Industry sources have warned that such a move may attract the attention of competition regulators and lead to a forced disposal of stores.
Wyevale and Tesco both declined to comment on the speculation.
Dobbies, founded by James Dobbie in 1865, was privately owned until a listing on the stock market in 1997.
Tesco acquired a majority stake in the company through a £156million deal struck in 2007.
The supermarket said it planned to use the business to cash in on growing demand for environmentally aware products such as solar panels and water butts.
Scottish entrepreneur Sir Tom Hunter built up a 29.2% shareholding in Dobbies but sold it to Tesco in 2008 for £36.3million, allowing the UK’s biggest grocer to take the firm private.
Tesco pledged to maintain the Dobbies brand and its Scottish head office.
But the retail giant’s new management team – led by chief executive Dave Lewis – is understood to be keen to sell the business in order to focus on core operations.
Several other private equity firms are believed to have been preparing bids for Dobbies, whose last set of accounts showed pre-tax losses of nearly £50million on turnover of £153million during the 53 weeks to March 1, 2015.
Dobbies has 15 stores in Scotland, 19 in England and one in Northern Ireland.
