Of interest24 May 2018 14:33
ALEX BRUMMER: The Sainsbury-Asda deal cannot be anything but anti-competitive and against consumer interest
By Alex Brummer for the Daily Mail
PUBLISHED: 22:46 BST, 22 May 2018 | UPDATED: 23:51 BST, 22 May 2018
Confidence at Sainsbury�s that it can ride out the Competition and Markets Authority probe into its �14.1billion merger with Asda is overdone.
Claims that the grocery market has changed dramatically as a result of the arrival of the German no-frills discounters Lidl and Aldi and ready-meal services, such as Just Eat, do not stand up to scrutiny.
Tesco (before its Booker deal) showed it can push up sales and maintain a dominant market share, irrespective of newcomers.
The biggest and most potent obstacle is not the overlapping store fronts in certain locations, but that there will be a duopoly of Sainsbury�s-Asda, with 60pc of the market.
Confidence at Sainsbury that it can ride out the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) probe into its �14.1bn merger with Asda is overdone
Whatever the number of challengers snapping at the heels of Sainsbury�s-Asda, a deal cannot be anything but anti-competitive and against consumer interest.
The idea that, magically, the biggest suppliers will cave in to pressure and allow a permanent prices drop for customers is fantasy.
Asda, as an offshoot of Walmart, has more bargaining power than most, and supplier margins have been scraped clean.