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arks & Spencer is to launch a £600m cash call on its shareholders in order to


bring its ready meals and other food hall favourites to internet shoppers for the first time in a £1.5bn deal with the online delivery firm Ocado. M&S will pay Ocado £750m for a 50% share of the new Ocado. com joint-venture, which will begin trading in September 2020, when Ocado’s deal to supply Waitrose products expires.


Steve Rowe, Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, said he had “always believed that M&S food could and should be online” and combining M&S’s upmarket food range with Ocado’s technology and delivery network was a “win-win” deal that would “drive long-term growth”.


business: “We think we’re paying a fair price and I think Ocado do too.”


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ainsbury’s shares have dived 15% after the UK’s competition watchdog cast doubt on its plan


to buy Asda.


Customers could see higher prices and less choice if the two grocers combined, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said. It said it could block the deal or force the sale of a large number of stores or even one of the brand names.


However, it also said it was “likely to be difficult” for the chains to address the concerns.


In its provisional report on the proposed merger, the CMA also said the merger could lead to a “poorer shopping experience”.


However, M&S shares fell by 12% as investors and analysts raised concerns that the 134-year-old high street retailer had overpaid for access to Ocado’s technology and delivery network. The plunge in M&S’s share price – the biggest one-day fall since 2016 – wiped more than £550m off the retailer’s market value. Ocado’s shares rose by 3%.


Mr Rowe rejected suggestions that M&S had paid too much to get into the growing internet grocery


6 April 2019


The two supermarkets will have a chance to respond to the CMA’s provisional findings, before it publishes its final decision on 30 April.


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orrisons has welcomed last year’s jump in like-for-like sales with a special dividend, though profits were hit by £86m in costs as the supermarket closed a pension scheme and paid off loans. Profit before tax fell 15.8% year- on-year to £320m in the 12 months


to the end of February, compared to £380m the year before. Morrisons blamed a variety of costs for the drop, including £33m in loan repayments, and £40m of higher stock provisioning and distribution improvements. The supermarket also had to pay £36m in pensions costs as it closed salary-linked schemes. However, underlying annual profits increased 8.6% to £406m. Morrisons plans to pay a final dividend of 4.75p per share, as well as a special dividend of 4p per share, taking the full-year total up 25% to 12.6p per share, compared to the previous year’s 10.09p. The UK’s fourth biggest


supermarket’s dividend reward was taken as a sign of its confidence amid an ongoing turnaround plan, despite underlying profits marginally missing analyst expectations.


Morrisons posted a positive outlook for 2019, saying it has “many sales and profit growth opportunities ahead” as it chases £1bn in wholesale supply sales.


That arm of the supermarket’s business is set to get a boost from Morrisons’ supply deal with convenience retailer McColl’s, and it expects to start supplying around 300 stores towards the end of 2019 as well as turning 10 McColl’s into Morrisons Daily stores.


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otal sales at Waitrose plummeted 8.8% year-on-year over the week to 09 March. The figure was distorted by tough comparisons against the same period last year when sales were higher due to the country recovering from the


‘Beast from the East’ and the run up to Mothering Sunday, which fell earlier on the 11 March. The chain highlighted that its vegetarian and vegan ranges continued to perform well with sales up 57%. Meanwhile, speciality beer was up 22%, and rum and malt whisky sales grew 14% and 10% respectively.


Overall, sales in the ambient category were down 8%, whilst sales in chilled, fruit, veg, bakery, meat, fish, frozen and dairy categories fell 7.1%. Sales in the home and general merchandise category slid 24.4%.


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idl is looking to move into a new site in Gravesend, Kent. Kier Property, the


development division of Kier Group, has submitted an application for planning permission to develop a 22,000 sq ft Lidl store and a 35,000 sq ft six-unit trade city scheme on a prominent 4.15 acre greenfield site on Coldharbour Road, Gravesend. It said Lidl exchanged contracts in February with Kier Property to officially purchase and announce the Gravesend site as part of its ambitious UK expansion of 50 new stores each year.


Presently, Lidl has 740 existing stores in the UK.


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