A round-up of supermarket news and gossip
Major names in the UK Supermarket arena – Sainsbury, Asda, Morrison and Marks and Spencer have demanded changes to planning regulations governing new stores and extensions in their submissions to the competition watchdog’s inquiry into the grocery market. In their initial submissions the retailers say that the system has contributed to the dominance of Tesco, the largest supermarket chain in the UK. Sainsbury’s claims that as much as 70% of Tesco’s growth since 2000 has come as a result of new space.

Nisa-Today’s, the convenience store group, has abandoned plans for a merger with Costcutter after disgruntled shareholders called in the Office of Fair Trading to investigate. The executive chairman of Nisa said that the merger had been aborted after banks financing the deal imposed new conditions. Wal-mart which owns and operates Asda in the UK, was poised to become China’s biggest operator of hypermarkets after reports that it is set to snap up 100 Chinese retail “supercentres” in a £540bn deal.

Wal-Mart appears to have pipped Carrefour, the French retail group, to acquire the chain of supercentres – giant stores selling both food and general merchandise – from Trust-Mart, a Taiwanese concern. Tesco is also reported to have been interested in the Trust-Mart outlets. If the deal goes ahead it should provide Wal-Mart with combined sales in China of $2bn. Kwik Save, the discount supermarket chain, has parted company with its second managing director in four months after finalising a £30m refinancing package. The retailer was purchased by Back to the Future a private consortium in July.

Tesco now has more than half the market share in six towns. Southall in Middlesex and Truro in Cornwall top the list with 57% of all groceries sold by the chain. Justin King, chief executive of Sainsbury’s unveiled the best quarterly results since the early 1990s. However Sainsbury’s shares dropped back 1.6% partly as investors took profit. Mr King said that to meet its aim of an additional £2.5bn in sales on 2008, the supermarket would need to produce an average 3% under-lying sales growth over the period.

Supermarket ready-meals manufacturer Northern Foods has learned that a good summer is not good for chocolate biscuit sales because of the time it takes to cool the product.

Supermarkets are now coming under fire for promoting Halloween. The Bishop of Bolton asked them to rethink the promotion of this spooky festival. Halloween is very important for US supermarkets, with sales reaching more than £100m last year.

Aldi increased profits by 110% in the UK and Irish Republic last year, as the chain revamped its image to try to attract more up-market shoppers.

Tesco is to take its Express convenience store format to the Czech Republic for in 2007 as it fights an onslaught from grocery discount chains such as Lidl.

The managers of BWG, which operates Spar convenience store franchise in Ireland and West of England are posed to buy the company for £265m.

Tesco reports it is set to hit £1bn in online sales for the first time. John Lewis which operates Waitrose has launched its own travel brokerage and range of insurance products, under the brand name Greenbee.

Somerfield’s owners are considering refinancing the business within the next six months after the supermarket chain paid off 20% of its debt in ten months.

Age discrimination legislation has prompted Asda to abandon lower pay rates for younger staff, even though the government claims it is legal. It will increase pay for its 5,000 under 18s to the adult staff rate of £5.19/hr to £5.71.

Dairy Crest has agreed a £62m deal to exit its own-brand cheeses business. The company unit supplies cheeses to Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison.

GEMINI