AN UNDERPERFORMING CI Traders was an opportunity Sandpiper could not miss. Chief executive Tony O’Neill said that it had spent nine months undertaking due diligence before completing the £260m. deal.

‘Although we only completed it on 3 August, it’s not like we didn’t know the company inside out.

‘The first few weeks have confirmed our first thoughts that there was an underperforming company. And that’s what we’re about: What can we do to improve this underperforming business?’

Mr O’Neill, 51, believes all arms – hospitality, retail and food and wine – can be improved.

‘It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation. It depends where we are in each division.’

He highlighted retail as one area that had considerable scope, including improving ranges.

‘I’ve spent 25 years running food and retail businesses. One gets a clear feel fairly quickly. When I walk into a shop, I get a feeling very quickly how that shop is working and performing.’

Mr O’Neill started his career with Marks & Spencer where he became director of the buying teams which were based in Baker Street.

He moved to supermarket chain Somerfield as associate buying director and rose to managing director. He was involved in taking the company to float on the stock market and spent five years on the board.

From there he moved into private equity, concentrating on retail turnaround. He has worked for UBS, Aberdeen Asset Management and Barclays Private Equity and most recently was in Hong Kong briefly working for the giant Hutchison Whampoa group.

The Hutchison flagship retail arm, A. S. Watson & Co., operates more than 7,800 retail stores in 33 countries.

In Asia, its flagship chains are Watson’s Your Personal Store and Park’n'Shop supermarkets. In Europe, the Watson’s network comprises nine health and beauty chains, including Savers and Superdrug.

Mr O’Neill said that one of the key attractions of the deal was that Sandpiper had been given a clear sign that a significant number of major shareholders in the company, including former chairman Tom Scott, were happy to talk to it about a potential acquisition.

He also knew something about CI Traders through his dealings with the company in his Marks & Spencer days.

But it still took a significant amount of time before Sandpiper submitted an offer to go through the assessment and due diligence process to confirm that the potential he believed existed in the company still did.

Mr O’Neill also wanted to allay fears that Sandpiper was in it for the short term.

In Jersey, it is expanding its Marks & Spencer brand with three new shops and the conversion of an existing one, creating 90 jobs.

Redevelopment of Perelle Checkers Xpress has been completed and Safeway in the Rohais has been earmarked for a significant revamp.

‘I’m moving out to Jersey to live in a few weeks’ time. My wife is joining me and my house in the Cotswolds is being sold. So I clearly don’t see this as a short-term business. We bought into it to grow.’

However, Mr O’Neill does want to get rid of some of the shortcomings and deficiencies he has seen in some areas of the business as soon as possible.

Although the initial focus has been on retail, and on supermarkets in particular, reviews are taking place in all parts of the company and more announcements will be made in due course.

But he said that Sandpiper would also work to improve its internal communications so that its thousands of employees knew what was going on.