Regional UK retailer Haldanes Stores has taken The Co-operative Group to the High Court in a spat over stores it acquired from the country’s fifth-largest grocer in 2009 and 2010.

Haldanes bought 26 stores from The Co-op in the wake of The Office of Fair Trading’s investigation into the acquisition of a third UK retailer, Somerfield.

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To allay concerns that The Co-op’s acquisition of Somerfield could hit competition in parts of the UK, the OFT ordered the retailer to offload a number stores.

Today (11 May), Haldanes CEO Arthur Harris said the retailer had started legal proceedings against The Co-op for alleged “material breaches” to the agreement over the 26 outlets. Harris also claimed The Co-op had “breached” the undertakings it gave to the OFT.

“Haldanes alleges that these breaches have severely damaged the business it acquired from The Co-op, not only causing it significant financial loss, but also causing harm to consumers,” Harris said. “If we had been made fully aware of the true trading picture from the outset, we would not have done the deal with The Co-op.”

The Haldanes chief claimed the retailer had been trying to meet with The Co-op since September but had been “consistently ignored or refused”, which left the company with, he added, “no option” but to head to the courts.

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Harris continued: “The Co-op has a real interest in driving Haldanes out of business.

Over the last four months I, through another of my companies, have had to invest GBP2m (US$3.3m) into Haldanes to ensure the business could continue and staff be paid. Six hundred jobs are at stake here, all ex-Co-op employees, and the Co-op appears to have no regard for these people whatsoever.

“It is my firm and honest belief that the caring, sharing public image and ethical stance portrayed by The Co-op is an utter fallacy. The Co-op has made me their whipping boy for stores which they were struggling to find a buyer for, but which they needed to sell, to avoid competition issues.

“The Co-op has sold me, customers in 26 local markets, and quite possibly 600 of their former employees down the river in order to do its deal with Somerfields while cynically weakening the competition their own stores face in these localities.”