NEWS ShopTalk N
isa members have narrowly backed a takeover offer from the Co-operative Group after a shareholder meeting to approve the £143m deal. The Co-op won 75.79% of Nisa members’ votes, just above the 75% threshold required. Nisa’s board had backed the bid to protect the stores in the face of higher prices and competition. Tesco’s potential takeover of Booker has raised fears that the combined company’s dominance would allow it to lower prices by dictating terms to suppliers, threatening smaller players like Nisa.
of the year. The CMA said the deal could even increase competition in the wholesale market and reduce prices for shoppers.
Tesco said it anticipated the merger would be completed in early 2018.
to 2.3% growth in the first quarter. Chief executive Mike Coupe blamed a “depressing August” for the sales slip. Sainsbury’s profits were dragged down to £220m after the company missed a £116m boost from property valuations and £98m proceeds from the sale of its pharmacy business that it benefitted from last year. The supermarket chain also had to absorb losses at Argos, which traditionally loses money in the first half of the year before turning a profit over the crucial Christmas trading. Underlying profits fell by 9% to £251m.
Booker said it was “pleased that the CMA has provisionally concluded that this transaction does not lessen competition”.
The Co-op said the deal will “bring significant immediate and long-term benefits for Nisa members, including access to greater scale, the Co-op’s award-winning range and own label proposition”.
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esco’s £3.7bn takeover of food wholesaler Booker has been provisionally cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the UK’s competition regulator. Tesco and Booker have both welcomed the CMA’s provisional decision and added that they would continue to work with the competition regulator, which is due to publish its final report by the end
6 December 2017
Booker is the UK’s largest food wholesaler, and also owns the Premier, Budgens and Londis store brands. More than 30% of its sales are to the catering sector, which Tesco does not supply, although the supermarket is keen to gain a foothold in the market.
Despite losing market share in recent years, Tesco remains the UK’s biggest supermarket with a share of about 28%.
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ainsbury’s has laid bare the challenges facing food retailers after profits tumbled by 40% while sales slowed amidst inflationary pressures and higher wage costs. The grocer highlighted an
increasingly competitive environment as it revealed that same-store sales had slowed to just 0.6% in the three months to September, compared
In response to rising cost pressures, Sainsbury’s has already announced that it will slash 2,000 jobs as it targets £500m worth of savings.
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orrisons has posted a 2.5% increase in like-for-like sales for the three months to 29 October, slightly short of analysts’ expectations, illustrating the difficulties facing supermarkets as they try to turn rising food prices to their advantage.
that the volume of groceries it sells had increased 2.1%, as a focus on value tempted customers to return. Morrisons’ growth figure excludes fuel sales but includes a 0.4% contribution from its wholesale business, which provides groceries to other retailers, including Amazon’s Fresh delivery service in London. David Potts, chief executive, pronounced himself “pleased with a further step-up in our competitiveness and another period of positive like-for-like sales growth.”
Since Mr Potts took over in 2015, he has pushed wholesale tie-ups with companies such as Amazon and McColl’s, and sold the lossmaking M Local convenience store chain.
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Analysts were expecting like-for- like growth of 2.8%, according to forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. Morrisons said it had “again worked hard during the quarter to limit the impact” of currency movements. The supermarket added
idl has started operations at its largest ever distribution centre in the UK, as the budget supermarket continues its rapid expansion. The discount supermarket said the opening of the Exeter distribution centre, its twelfth in the UK, has created around 500 local jobs. The £55m Exeter warehouse is Lidl’s third to open in the past year and will service 51 stores across the South West region.
As retailers prepare for the busy Christmas period, Lidl’s new warehouse expects to handle 40,000 turkeys, 1.5m boxes of mince pies and 100,000 bottles of prosecco in the week leading up to Christmas day. Mark Henry, regional director at Lidl stated: “The South West is an important region for Lidl and it’s an area where we’ve experienced particularly strong growth.”
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