FROM a single filling station in Bury, Greater Manchester, the Issa brothers, Zuber and Issa, have built an international convenience retail business, before they broke into the big league of the UK grocery sector.
Mohsin and Zuber Issa acquired Asda, the third largest supermarket chain in the UK, from Walmart in October 2020 for an enterprise value of £6.8 billion, a purchase completed in February 2021. The Blackburn-based brothers partnered with private equity group TDR Capital to take Asda back under British ownership for the first time since 1999, when Walmart paid £6.7bn for the business.
TDR Capital, whose portfolio also include gym company David Lloyd Leisure and pubs operator Stonegate, among others, has earlier invested in EG Group, formerly known as Euro Garages, the forecourt operator founded by the Issas in 2001.
EG Group has since grown into one of Britain's biggest convenience retailers and expanded into Europe, the US and Australia, through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions. Besides fuel and grocery, they also boast a thriving foodservice business, and their operations include prominent third-party brands such as Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, Greggs, Sbarro, Cinnabon and Subway as well as their own proprietary brands including LEON, Cooplands, Go Fresh, and Cumberland Farms.
In April 2022, EG Group has announced plans to create about 22,700 jobs in the UK, and more than 32,000 jobs globally, over a five-year period between January 2022 and December 2026, driven by a sustained investment in the foodservice business.
In the UK, the group will deliver many of these jobs from rolling out its proprietary brands ‒ Cooplands, the nation’s second-biggest bakery chain, and LEON, the ‘naturally fast food’ brand, both acquired in 2021‒ across its forecourt network, new-to-industry (NTI) sites, and EG foodservice concessions at Asda locations.
Cooplands will be opening 30 outlets a year through 2026, including cafés inside NTIs and convenience stores on EG forecourt sites. The group is also committed to rolling out at least 50 LEON restaurants a year through 2026, primarily in the UK, alongside 10 further openings in the Netherlands, ahead of a wider European expansion.
It will also create a large number of new jobs by accelerating openings for its existing third-party brand partners, notably Starbucks and KFC, including drive-thrus on the group’s UK forecourts and on Asda carparks ‒ with these foodservice outlets operated by EG and its partners.
Approximately 9,700 new jobs will come from organic growth in EG’s nine additional markets: Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia and the US over the same five-year period.
“As EG continues to go from strength to strength, we will be creating a large number of new jobs over the coming years, particularly in our successful foodservice business ‒ which remains a significant growth opportunity globally. We are proud to be a business founded in Britain that invests in job creation worldwide, while focusing heavily on the training and development of colleagues,” Mohsin and Zuber commented.
The group’s some 6,300 sites in ten countries employ over 53,000 people and serve 1.3 billion customers a year, with sales crossing $26.5bn (£21.3bn) in2021. In the UK, they have over 900 sites and nearly 20,000 employees. The brothers, who serve as the co-chief executives, each own a quarter of EG Group, with TDR Capital owning the other half.
The Issas and TDR Capital are reportedly considering a merger of their EG Group and Asda businesses, and if it goes through it would create a retail giant worth between £11-£13bn. The imprint of the brothers is already visible at Asda, which announced plans to expand into the convenience channel to grab a bigger share of the grocery market, terming it as a key part of its long-term growth strategy to become the UK’s second largest supermarket.
In December 2022, the supermarket said it will open 300 Asda Express format stores by the end of 2026. “A key part of our growth strategy is to provide customers with more opportunities to shop at Asda closer to where they live or work. With more than three quarters of the UK population visiting a convenience store in the last 12 months, the potential for growth in this market is significant,” Mohsin said.
“Our ambition is to become the convenience destination of choice by providing shoppers great value and a comprehensive and convenient range of products and services under one roof,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Indian-origin Gujarati brothers are also considering a £1bn sale of part of their US petrol station empire and have reportedly hired investment bankers at Eastdil to lead the process.
They branched out across the pond and Down Under in 2018, by acquiring 762 convenience stores from Kroger, the largest supermarket chain in the US, and the petrol business of Woolworths Group, Australia’s no 1 retailer. EG America now operates across 31 states and is the fifth largest convenience store network in the country by store number, with over 1,800 sites, and EG Australia’s portfolio consists of around 540 petrol forecourts and convenience stores.
Between 2013 and 2015, the brothers established themselves as a major independent forecourt retailer in the UK following a series of significant acquisitions from oil majors ExxonMobil and Shell, giving the business a nationwide site footprint. EG Group is the largest single retail branded wholesaler customer globally for ExxonMobil.
They started their international foray in 2016, entering the European market with the acquisition of over 1,100 sites across Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and France from European Forecourt Retail Group, making them a larger international operator. They now run over 3,000 sites in continental Europe, with the latest addition being the takeover of 285 service stations in Germany last year, acquired from Austrian multinational OMV Group.
Born in the town of Blackburn, northwest England, the Issas attended their local comprehensive school in Blackburn and began their careers working in their father’s local petrol station. Their parents came to the UK from Gujarat, India, in the 1960s.
Mohsin, 51, and Zuber, 50, have founded the EG Foundation (corporate) and ISSA Foundation (personal), which supports individuals, communities and organisations. They retain a strong connection to their hometown, Blackburn. They also sponsor a local football team, Euro Garages FC, there.
The brothers were awarded with CBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours List for their contribution to business and charity.
