Competition watchdog kills Sainsbury’s £7.3bn Asda merger: What went wrong? April 25, 2019 Almost a year to the day since Sainsbury’s first revealed that it was in merger talks with Asda, it has all come crashing down. In late April 2018 the two retail giants were losing market share to German discounters Aldi and Lidl, and the threat of Amazon moving into the grocery sector was very real. [...]
Tesco turnaround marks the milestone for Drastic Dave April 10, 2019 In the never-ending debate about executive pay, examples of failure are cited more frequently than cases of good value for money. Recently the likes of WPP, Persimmon and Ted Baker have all demonstrated how the actions of the top boss can dent the fortunes of a company and frustrate shareholders. But despairing investors now have [...]
Morrisons keeps income investors happy March 18, 2019 | City Talk By Graeme Evans from interactive investor. After flagging another special dividend with annual results, there are opportunities for this grocer. In an eventful and turbulent period for the grocery sector, Morrisons (LSE:MRW) continues to hold its own after unveiling further robust profits growth and another special divi for investors. Today’s full-year results, despite drifting back [...]
The UK’s best and worst supermarkets: How did Sainsbury’s, Asda, Aldi and Lidl do? February 22, 2019 The big four supermarket chains have lost ground to budget rivals in a survey of shopper satisfaction, as customers grow increasingly dissatisfied with the the quality of in-house labels. Read more: Watchdog may block Sainsbury's-Asda merger Aldi and Lidl outperformed the big four with customer satisfaction scores of 68 and 66 per cent respectively, according to [...]
Iceland mulls bid for potential Sainsbury’s-Asda store sell-offs February 11, 2019 Frozen foods giant Iceland is mulling a move to snap up supermarket stores that Sainsbury’s and Asda could be forced to offload as part of their proposed tie-up. "We are looking at everything for sure," Iceland's managing director Richard Walker told the FT. "Food retail drives footfall and we are the only supermarket that is [...]
Aldi and Lidl bag more market share as Veganuary boosts supermarkets’ fresh produce sales February 5, 2019 Aldi and Lidl enjoyed the strongest growth of any UK supermarket over the past 12 weeks, according to the latest industry figures, as Veganuary boosted fresh produce sales across the sector. Around 18.3m households shopped in at least one of the discount supermarkets in the 12 weeks to 27 January, industry research firm Kantar Worldpanel data revealed [...]
Retail round up: What’s happening on the high street? January 11, 2019 | City Talk Not as bad as it could have been. That’s the general feeling about high street performance over Christmas after major retailers and the supermarkets published their festive figures this week. The British Retail Consortium says that 2018 was the worst Christmas for retails for 10 years but, as ever, the figures show there are winners [...]
Every Lidl helps: German discount chain boosts sales in bumper Christmas trading January 11, 2019 German discount supermarket Lidl boosted sales eight per cent over the Christmas period, it revealed today. In the six weeks to 30 December sales were up eight per cent on the same period last year with Saturday 22 December the busiest day. Lidl’s results were aided by a 33 per cent jump in sales for [...]
Super Thursday: Embattled retailers could learn from the Tesco turnaround plan January 10, 2019 It wasn’t only children who traditionally looked forward to Christmas: time was when Yuletide sales could be guaranteed to give a substantial boost to Britain’s retailers. No longer. A slew of dismal results published today showed Christmas figures sharply down for a number of household names including M&S and Debenhams, in what the British Retail [...]
Aisle be damned: The knives are out for big UK grocers January 9, 2019 Aldi and Lidl’s tills jingled all the way in December – handing them their highest-ever combined market share for the festive season, data from Kantar Worldpanel showed this week. All the major supermarkets lost market share in the 12 weeks to 30 December as Aldi’s sales jumped 10.4 per cent while Lidl’s were up 9.4 [...]