A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
The competition commission has put back the timetable for its enquiry into Britain’s £95bn grocery sector after receiving a huge response from witnesses.

The commission planned to publish a key document on its initial thoughts at the end of last year, but delayed publication until January 2007. The inquiry will be completed by the May 2008 deadline it was stated.

John Lewis, who also operates Waitrose, reported its best sales week in the run up to Christmas. Tesco said that electrical goods and toys were its fastest growing merchandise areas as the retailer shrugged off talk of a grim Christmas to deliver continued strong trading.

Analysts were also disappointed by the rate of expansion outside the UK, where Tesco admitted that its Hungarian and South Korean stores had been affected by local economic difficulties.

The Co-operative Group and United Co-operatives are in talks to merge. The merged group would have 2,300 food stores and a combined turnover of £10.5bn.

Kwik Save is in talks to secure fresh cash injection – less than two months after the company’s last fundraising exercise. About 18 Kwik Save outlets were bought in February from Somerfield by a consortium led by the veteran retailer Richard Kirk. They had been part of the Somerfield group since 1998.

Since the stores were off loaded, they have suffered a sharp fall in sales amounting losses. Details of the negotiations are being kept secret.

Shoppers who choose economy ranges in supermarkets are getting an unhealthy deal, a report warned. Most budget ranges contain significantly more salt and sugar than the companies’ own-brand products, the National Consumer Council has stated.

Out of 94 own-brand products surveyed in the council’s Short Changed on Health report, 41 met food standards for sodium, but of 49 economy products surveyed only 17 were within the recommended guidelines. Top of the poll was Sainsbury and Morrison propping up the major eight UK supermarkets.

Tesco’s drive into India could be delayed after it called off talks with Bharti Enterprises, its potential partner. Multi-brand retailers are not allowed to enter India without a local partner and so Tesco will have to find a new local player to align with. It is understood that Bharti has also been in talks with Carrefour and Wal-Mart.

M&S has announced it is offering a one-stop shopping experience for the time-conscious bride.

A very major UK supermarket operator plans to convert its entire fleet of 2,000 distribution lorries to biodiesel in a radical move to boost its green credentials. The lorries will run on a biodiesel blend called B50,which is 50% ordinary diesel mixed with biofuel – a renewable fuel made from agricultural crops. The move is expected to cut CO2 emissions by more than 70,000tonnes a year.

The Carrefour Group of France has entered into an agreement to acquire Ahold Polska for E375m. Ahold Polska operates from 194 stores,15 of which are hypermarkets. With this acquisition Carrefour Polska becomes no2 in the Polish market.

Asda is on track with its energy-saving programme, having invested £12m in projects to save energy in its 313 stores across the UK. The total energy saved year on year will be equivalent to more than 80m kW/h, the annual amount of energy used to power towns the size of Dartford or Hereford, saving more than 34,000 tonnes of carbon.

The energy saved will slash 10% off the company’s energy consumption forecast for 2007. Having sold over 4m energy saving light bulbs last year, Morrisons is the first grocer to launch a range of energy-saving light bulbs which have been approved by The EST.

GEMINI