THE new venture capitalist owner of Unwins, the off licence chain, hinted yesterday that it was considering raising fresh equity, possibly through a stock market listing, to assist expansion plans.

The suggestion came as DM Private Equity, which acquired the company in March for £32 million, sought to refute rumours of financial difficulties and insisted that complaints by store managers about stock shortages had been overblown.

Phillip Cook, chairman of both Unwins and DM Private Equity, responded forcefully to a stream of negative publicity in Off Licence News (OLN).

The main issue highlighted in OLN is that of stock shortages, with some managers claiming that the situation has become so bad that they have to buy from the local cash-and-carry. In a recent letter, one manager said: “Things are at an all-time low. Why can’t we have the stock we keep being promised? Managers and staff seem to be flogging a dead horse. Is it any wonder that that we are losing some of the best managers and staff?”

Mr Cook admitted that those of its 380-shop chain that had yet to have a new computerised till system installed had suffered some glitches, while a rationalisation of the number of lines from 5,000 to 350 had caused some disgruntlement.

Mr Cook said that Unwins had repaid, largely from a sale-and-leaseback deal, £29 million of the £34 million that it had borrowed from HBOS to fund the acquisition and its costs. He said that an equity raising was likely to fund expansion plans.

“It’s a very good business, but what was lacking was discipline,” he said. “We’ve made good progress.”

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