A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
This isn’t just a changing room, this is a litter strewn, dirty and rudely staffed – wait for it, Marks and Spencer changing room. The Marble Arch branch may be the biggest M&S store, but its changing rooms have come bottom of a survey conducted by Retail Week magazine. Somerfield, taken private in a £1.8bn deal a year ago, suffered a 7% drop in profits last year as it battles through a ten-month takeover battle.

The extent of the financial misery at Kwik Save, the firm’s sister retailer, was also revealed in the latest accounts. The future of the discounter hangs in the balance ahead of a court hearing that could seal its fate. Lawyers for the struggling chain appeared at a series of hearings in Liverpool on whether the company should go into administration. Underlying sales plummeted by 16.9%. The chain recorded a loss of £1424m.

Wal-Mart has finalised a £510m deal to buy Bounteous, its Chinese rival.

Since the contaminated fuel problem, it is alleged that fuel suppliers knew more than a week before the event that petrol had been contaminated, while thousands of motorist continued to drive after filling up with the fuel. Suppliers were told of a potential problem with unleaded petrol but did nothing to warn motorists, said Ray Holloway, director of the Petrol Retailers Association. The Vopak oil terminal at Thurrock was identified as the culprit supplier. Tesco, Morrisons and Asda are all taking evasive action.

On a similar subject, Tesco was subject to a “smash and grab” raid when bailiffs seized £60,000 of alcohol from supermarket giant Tesco after a driver sued over contaminated fuel. The bailiffs served a writ on the supermarket on behalf of motorist David Bond, whose Mercedes van’s engine was wrecked by fuel he purchased from a Tesco store in November 2003. In December 2006, a court ordered the supermarket to pay him £2,690. Tesco finally agreed to pay up blaming the delay on “an administrative oversight”.

Wal-Mart has charged a former Tesco executive to come up with plans to torpedo the British group’s debut in the USA. Tesco intends to make its US entry later this year with a chain called Fresh & Easy. Wal-Mart’s response is co-ordinated by David Wild, a former international md of Tesco, now working at the US company hq in Arkansas. Fresh & Easy will not use Tesco’s red, white and blue logo but a green clock superimposed on an apple.

It is understood that Tesco will open with 20 stores in Phoenix, before moving further west.

The Co-op is to sell equity release mortgages. It will promote deals from Retirement Plus in 900 supermarkets, pharmacies and other outlets in the north of England.

More than 400 jobs are under threat after Britain’s biggest producer of supermarket trolleys went into receivership. The Clares Group, which has suffered from undercutting by imported products. has been taken over by administrators from KPMG, which is now trying to sell the company as a going concern.

Levi Roots, the chef who burst into song to impress the investors on the reality TV show Dragons Den is to have his Reggae Reggae sauce sold by Sainsbury’s.

Robert Tchenguiz has swooped on 3% of J Sainsbury, pushing up the price of the supermarket just as private equity consortium was given 38 days to make a bid or walk away.

The Iranian property tycoon also owns a stake in Somerfield and his intentions towards Sainsbury remain unclear. Citigroup advises Tchenguiz so the move rules out any rival bid from Marks and Spencer, as it is also using the services of Citigroup as brokers.

In the face of a leveraged buyout by private equity firms, Sainsbury pension trustees were recently forced by the take-over panel to admit the potential size of the fund’s deficit as being about £1bn.

< b>Carrefour is to allow new shareholders Groupe Arnault and Colony Capital to obtain two seats on its board. Carrefour is considered to be the world’s second biggest food retailer.

GEMINI