The Booker Group

The Booker Group Ltd is one of the largest food wholesaler businesses in the United Kingdom and is a subsidiary of the Tesco supermarket group. The traces its history back to 1835 when Booker Brothers & Co was founded by George and Richard Booker. The business was then merged with John McConnell & Co, officially incorporated as Booker Brothers, McConnell & Co Ltd on 29th March 1900.

The company is notable for its significant influence on the Guyana sugar trade in the 19th and 20th centuries. Prior to nationalisation of the industry by the government in Guyana in 1975, the company owner a number of important estates, however it had shut down rum production at all but two of them, Enmore and Uitvlugt, which it operated through its Demerara Distilleries Ltd and Guyana Distillers Limited subsidiaries, respectively.