NEWS ShopTalk S
ainsbury’s was the only major supermarket chain to suffer a drop in sales over Easter, bucking the trend among its rivals, which reaped the benefits of the warm weather.
to its lowest point in more than 20 years following the merger plan collapse.
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The grocery chain’s sales fell 1.2% in the three months to 21 April according to the latest industry data from market researcher Kantar, while the grocery sector as a whole grew 2%, its fastest rate this year. Shoppers spent a record £2.5bn at Easter as higher temperatures boosted sales of ice-cream and hay fever remedies.
In the latest run of bad news for Sainsbury’s after its planned £7bn merger with Asda was blocked by the Competition and Markets Authority, it was the worst performer, not only among the big four supermarkets, but also behind smaller rivals including Iceland and Co-op.
Kantar’s view of Sainsbury’s performance is partly affected by the installation of Argos outlets in stores, so general merchandise sales once registered by the supermarket are now clocked up at the catalogue shop.
The fall in sales at Sainsbury’s will add to pressure on chief executive Mike Coupe, whose job is on the line as Sainsbury’s share price has sunk
6 June 2019
orrisons is free to deepen its relationship with Amazon after the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket loosened its ties with Ocado, the online delivery service. The chain has signed a new deal with Ocado, which handles the supermarket’s online store deliveries, that will allow Morrisons to sell directly online through other platforms, including Amazon marketplace and Deliveroo, and to use other partners to deliver goods from
Morrisons.com.
In return, the deal allows Ocado to take back distribution centre space used for delivering
Morrison.com orders for nearly two years.
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ajestic Wine, the UK’s largest specialist wine retailer, is considering selling all of its British shops and becoming an online-only operation under the Naked Wines brand.
The company has appointed Rothschild & Co investment bank to work on options for a sale of part of the business, with a decision to be announced at its full-year results presentation this month. The potential sale of Majestic’s 200 UK stores would represent the culmination of the reorientation of the business under the chief executive since Majestic bought Naked, the company he founded, for £70m in 2015.
Rowan Gormley was made chief executive of Majestic as part of the deal. In March he announced that the Majestic name would disappear, with the main company adopting the Naked Wines brand.
Ocado wants the space back to fulfil orders for the online grocer’s own customers after its hi-tech distribution centre in Andover was destroyed by a fire in February. Until February 2021, Morrisons is giving up its right to use 30% of the space at Ocado’s new centre in Erith, south-east London, which handles 10,000 Morrisons orders per week. Under the new deal, Ocado will also gradually gain more freedom to work with other partners.
The Majestic Wine retail arm made sales of £263.8m in the year to April 2018, more than half the entire group’s sales. However, its sales growth lagged far behind Naked Wines, which has operations in the US and Australia.
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armfoods has raised its annual pre-tax profits by nearly £1m to more than £12m on the back of strong growth in turnover.
The frozen food retailer, which is based at Cumbernauld near Glasgow and has shops throughout the UK, notched up a turnover of £660.3m in the year to 29 December last year. This was up by £17.6m on the prior 12 months.
The family business raised its pre- tax profits to £12.1m in the year to 29 December, from £11.12m in the previous 12 months.
Meanwhile, it reduced its net borrowings from £21.2m to £13.2m. In its strategic report the Farmfoods board said: “Trading conditions have been and are expected to remain competitive.”
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sda, Ocado and the Co-op are taking the lead in own label growth.
According to data from Kantar, the three retailers have all grown ahead of the 2.3% market average. Of the big four, Asda was the best performer with a value increase of 4.4% in the 52 weeks to 24 March 2019. That compared with just 1.6% for Morrisons, and declines for Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
Meanwhile, Ocado grew private label sales by 7.1% and the Co-op secured a 6.5% boost.
That made Asda, Ocado and the Co-op the fastest-growing own label retailers outside the discounters. While Aldi gained 11%, Lidl achieved a more modest increase of 6.4%. The growth for Asda, Ocado and the Co-op over the past year follows own label revamps by the three retailers.
www.acr-news.com
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