Sale of petrol filling station group

13 December 2019

Christie Group plc
("Christie Group" or the "Company")

Christie & Co successfully brokers sale of petrol filling station group

Christie Group plc (CTG.L), the leading provider of Professional & Financial Services and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services to the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors, is pleased to announce that Christie & Co, its specialist provider of agency and advisory services, has completed on the sale of Cornwall Garage Group to Ascona Group.
 

The portfolio of 17 petrol filling stations, located across the Midlands, Home Counties and South West of England, was established by John Murray in the early 1960s and comprises fourteen freehold and three leasehold sites. It was ranked 13 on the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indie 2019 listing.

The group has been purchased by Ascona Group which itself has rapidly expanded over the last two years. This acquisition takes them to 37 operational sites and moves the group into the top 10 independent fuel retailers in the UK.
 

Grant, Lance and Pamela Murray comment, "The Murray family are pleased to announce the sale of the Cornwall Garage Group to Ascona Group. The company was set up over 50 years ago by John Murray. Following his death in post at 94 years old the family decided to sell the group in order to facilitate the development of other interests. We wish Ascona Group every success in the future and thank our loyal and hardworking staff for all their help in making the Cornwall Garage Group such a happy and successful family business. We'd also like to thank the Christie & Co team for all their hard work, persistence, dedication and advice throughout the process, from marketing through to completion."

Mark Kaluza, Director of Retail at Christie & Co who led the deal for the Murrays adds, "We have worked with the Murrays for a number of years and were delighted to receive their instructions to handle the sale.  They agreed to a full and open marketing campaign which exposed the opportunity to the entire market. We received significant interest in the group as a whole and over 100 offers for individual sites. We wish Darren and his team well with integrating 17 sites in to the expanding Ascona Group portfolio and are very pleased to have played a large part in their expansion plans. with this pivotal acquisition." 

Enquiries:

Christie Group plc

Chris Day

Christie & Co Global Managing Director                                                                                                020 7227 0777

Dan Prickett

Chief Operating Officer                                                                                                                             020 7227 0700

Shore Capital

Antonio Bossi

Sarah Mather

Nominated Advisor and Broker                                                                                                               020 7408 4090

Notes to Editors:

Christie Group plc, quoted on AIM, is a leading professional business services group with 43 offices across the UK, Europe and Canada, catering to its specialist markets in the hospitality, leisure, healthcare, medical, childcare & education and retail sectors.

Christie Group operates in two complementary business divisions: Professional & Financial Services (PFS) and Stock & Inventory Systems & Services (SISS). These divisions trade under the brand names: PFS - Christie & Co, Pinders, Christie Finance and Christie Insurance: SISS - Orridge, Venners and Vennersys.

Tracing its origins back to 1846, the Group has a long-established reputation for offering essential services to client companies in agency, valuation services, investment, consultancy, project management, multi-functional trading systems and online ticketing services, stock audit and inventory management. The diversity of these services provides a natural balance to the Group's core agency business.

For more information, please go to www.christiegroup.com.