A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
Supermarket giants may be driving the corner shop out of business, but they are finding it harder to compete with farmers’ markets and street markets. The latter offer a greater range of fresh fruit and vegetables and charge up to 50% less, states a recent consumer report. Farmers’ markets, while more expensive than street markets, still charge 11% less than supermarkets. Markets also generate more jobs per m2 of retail space, according to a report from the New Economics Foundation. The findings are based on a study of the Queen’s Market, in Upton Park East London, a typical street market.

Tesco is to be left as the only big foreign retailer in South Korea after Wal-Mart signalled that it was withdrawing from the Asian country. The American retailing giant said that it would sell its 16 stores to Shinsegae, a local rival, for £463m. The exit comes only weeks after Carrefour, the French retailer, announced that it was disposing of all of its 32 stores in the country. Wal-Mart and Carrefour are expected to focus their efforts on the larger Chinese market.

The competition commission has released the timetable for its inquiry into the supermarket sector, confirming its plans to publish the report by October 2007.

The Women’s Institute has enlisted to take on Tesco and big food companies in the fight for red labels to be put on junk food.

Dame Deirdre Hutton, chairman of the Food Standards Agency, urged members to contact supermarkets and companies directly to give their views on “traffic-light labels”. Watch out Terry, Ken and Justin!

Marc Bollard will arrive at Morrison in September as the new chief. He will certainly have a challenge on his hands at Morrison’s which is still reeling from the boardroom battles that have ensued since the Safeway take-over.

Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, saw his pay rise by 25% last year, bringing his total remuneration to nearly £4m.

David Jones confirmed his resignation from Morrison amid a final bust-up with chairman Sir Ken Morrison. In a recent statement Morrison said that Sir Ken would relinquish his chairmanship of the executive board to Marc Bolland. It is understood that Sir Ken would not take a pay cut and will continue to work five days a week.

UK food producers are laying off staff as supermarkets post record results. Britain’s food producers are under attack from all sides. Hit by the increasing demands of the supermarkets and rising energy costs, they are also often wrong-footed as consumers opt for healthier food.

Over the past five years the cost of food has fallen 4.9% but, while supermarkets have still posted record profits, suppliers have found it tough.

According to Ernst Young, the first three months of 2006 have seen profit warnings from five food companies.

Pyaterochka, the Russian discount store which last month agreed to merge with a rival to form Russia’s top grocery retailer, reported a 5% drop in first-quarter net profits to $21.2m, after a period of rapid expansion.

Asda is threatening to go to court in a last-ditch attempt to block strike action in its distribution centres, which could leave huge gaps on the shelves. The threat of legal action is the latest twist in a bitter dispute over union recognition in the distribution depots. Asda claims to have identified 60 cases where workers who have left the union have still received ballot papers. The retailer also claimed that 100 former staff have also received ballot papers.

John Lewis Partnership, parent of company of Waitrose, has denied that it was taking steps to dismantle its historic partnership structure with plans to appoint external directors for the first time. The company stated that the move to hire two non-executive directors was “an attempt to move and improve with the times.”

GEMINI