The head of Canada's biggest supermarket chain and owner of Brown Thomas is exploring a bid to acquire Selfridges, the venerable British department store group, the British media reported yesterday.

Mr Galen Weston is bidding £500 million (€722 million) for Selfridges, which he could in turn merge with his Brown Thomas department stores in Ireland, the the Sunday Times said. The Brown Thomas Group has stores in Dublin, Galway and Limerick.

Mr Weston is president and chairman of Toronto-based George Weston, which operates Canada's biggest supermarket chain Loblaws as well as bakeries, dairies and salmon farms.

Others said to be eyeing Selfridges include Scottish entrepreneur Mr Tom Hunter, a consortium led by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, and the store's current chief executive Mr Peter Williams, the newspaper said. Named for the American who founded it in 1909, Selfridges pulls 17 million shoppers a year into its flagship Oxford Street store in central London, where it stocks 3,000 brands. It also runs branches in Manchester and Birmingham.