Sainsbury’s, reeling from last week’s decision by the UK regulator to block its takeover of rival Asda, was alone among Britain’s big four supermarket groups in seeing sales fall in the latest 12-week period, industry data has shown. However, last Thursday the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority thwarted the £7.3bn (€8.5bn) deal, saying it would have seen prices rise, not fall, as Sainsbury’s and Asda had argued. Market researcher Kantar said Sainsbury’s sales fell 1.2% in the 12 weeks to April 21 compared to the same period a year ago. However, Argos’ sales are not captured by Kantar. The market researcher said total UK grocery sales rose 2% over the 12-week period, the fastest rate of growth the overall sector has experienced this year.
Source: Irish Examiner May 01, 2019 05:47 UTC